A Terrible Night For A Curse
by Hermione Blackwood
Summary: When the Tendo Dojo is hired to slay a demon things go horribly wrong when the demon turns out to be a pure-blood vampire. Ranma is then transferred to Cross Academy to cope with the changes to his body. Ranma characters in the world of Vampire Knight. No need to have read/seen Vampire Knight though, it's a Ranma story just taking place there. Post-manga story, Ran-chanxRyo
1. Chapter 1: Bloody Tears

Chapter 1: Bloody Tears

* * *

It was a dark and dreary night that the Tendos and Saotomes found themselves wandering through what appeared to be a ghost town. Many of the buildings, some of them looking older than a century, towered around the abandoned landscape. Not a soul in sight. Nothing but the wind gently blowing ratted signs and clothes as it passed by. The only source of light the group had was a full harvest moon, shining so brightly through the thick atmosphere it shone a bright red.

"Whaddarwe doin' here anyway?" Ranma complained, shivering from the cold. He wanted nothing more than to go home and take a nice warm soak in the furo.

"I told you, Son," Soun Tendo began, "it is a martial artist's duty to protect the weak and innocent and we must find this demon before it attacks again!"

"And the nice lady paid in advance!" Genma added with a hearty laugh, causing Soun to slump in shame at being exposed.

"I still don't see why we gotta do this in the middle of the night. It's almost winter, too. I'm gonna get sick or somethin'." Ranma spat, pulling his coat tighter around himself.

"Oh stop, Ranma," Akane said, jogging a little to catch up to him. "It's not so bad. Plus, the sooner we find this thing, the sooner we can get back to the hotel and then get home. I don't want to be here any more than you do... this place is creeping me out."

Just then they all whipped around to look towards a tin can that had fallen and clanged loudly on the street ahead.

Akane immediately tensed. "W-what do you think this 'demon' is anyway?"

"I dunno, probably just some pervert like Happosai again," Ranma answered.

"Oh please, if it was, why would he come to a place like this? It's probably more like the ghost cat or something..."

Now it was Ranma's turn to tense up.

"D-d-do ya have to say things like that?!"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't think about it," Akane apologized.

The silence continued as the group made it to what they assumed was the center of the town. Four main streets convulged to a rather ornate fountain, still quietly dribbling water from the pedals of a stone rose.

"What a unique design," Akane commented absently.

"We seem to be getting nowhere fast," Soun began, addressing the group. "Let's split up here. Everyone, take a different road and meet back here in an hour. If you learn where this beast might be, don't try to fight it alone. Come back here and wait for the others to help."

"S-split up?" Akane cried in dread. The last thing she wanted to do was walk through this spooky town alone!

"What's the matter, Akane? Scaaaared?" Ranma teased. "If you wanna wait here where it's safe, I'll check your street too."

Akane blushed in embarrassment but stood strong and shouted, "I-I'm not scared! And I came along to be useful! I'm the heiress to the Tendo Dojo, and when duty calls, it's my job to go!"

Soun beamed with pride and wrapped his arms around his daughter, with tears of happiness streaming down his face. "That's daddy's little girl~! Oh Akane, you make your father so proud!"

"G-Get off!" she struggled to no avail.

Ranma just let out a soft chuckle at the scene.

"Y'know boy, you would do good to show some enthusiasm too instead of whining like a little girl," Genma said, approaching Ranma from behind.

"What'd you say to me, Pops?! You wanna go for a swim in the fountain?!" he yelled back at him.

Genma merely shrugged and laughed it off, not wanting to get wet in this cold. He cleared his throat and to deflect Ranma's attention, he merely said, "It's best we get going, boy. I'll take this path, you head there." He pointed the opposite direction.

"Whatever," Ranma muttered, heading over that direction. Before he began though, he took one last look back to Akane who was now free from her father's embrace and heading towards another route. "Hey Akane... be careful, ok?"

"Y-yes, of course!" she replied, surprised to see him show worry over her. "You too."

He nodded in return and they all began going their separate ways.

Ranma began on his path and walked in silence for several minutes, brooding over his father. '_How dare he! He always says things like that, like he's ashamed that I turn into a girl! It's his stupid fault I got cursed in the first place!_' he thought to himself.

"_Hmm... how sweet... you smell..._" a voice called out for him, pulling his attention away from brooding. The voice was faint and whispy, blonging to a woman, but he had no idea where it was coming from.

"Who's there?" Ranma called into the darkness, but all he heard in reply was a faint laughter heading away from him, towards the direction of a large building at the end of the street, masked by the thick fog that had begun rolling in.

Ranma ran after the voice and found as he drew closer that the building itself was an old tower. Possibly an old watch tower or bell tower. The tower stood out among the rest of the town for being made of stone in an almost European style, clashing hard against the classic Japanese aesthetic of the town itself.

Ranma started towards the large wooden door that sat at the base of the tower and slightly ajar, but stopped himself as he reached out towards the handle.

'_Maybe I should go back and bring the others..._' he idly thought.

Once again, his thoughts and the hesitation were broken by the myserious whispy voice in her sing-song way. "_Don't be afraid, sweet boy... Come in and let me explore this... unique scent of yours..._"

Ranma gulped, but he wasn't one to back down from a challenge. He reached for the handle and pulled with all his might, opening the heavy door with its rusted hinges, and he stepped inside. The second he was clear of the threshold, the door slammed shut behind him with a loud thud, locking him inside the dark tower, illuminated only by the moonlight trickling in through tiny windows in the stone.

Meanwhile, across town, Akane was bravely making her way downtown, walking fast, houses past, and she was demon-bound. Yes, she may be shivering from some odd mixture of the cold and her fear, but she pressed on.

Several blocks in, her worry seemed to pass into a sense of tranquility. The whole area was silent, and while fog was slowly rolling in, the moon was still very bright and lit up the street and all the buildings well. She stopped for a moment to take it all in. The serenity of it all. She closed her eyes and with a deep breath, her fear was gone.

"Nobody's here at all," she quietly said to herself. "I don't even know what I'm looking for."

As she stood still, trying to think of any clues that could lead her to the demon, she heard a stone wall next to her begin to crack.

She jumped back in a panic, her fear now back in full swing, and watched as the cracking stone burst into millions of tiny little pieces. She held her arms up to protect her face, and when the barrage was over she opened her eyes to see something completely unexpected approach her.

"Akane, is that you? What are you doing in Yokohama?" Ryoga said, casually approaching his friend.

Akane sighed and threw her arms around him in relief.

"Oh, Ryoga! I was so scared! Don't do that to me again!"

Ryoga's mind was on the fritz from having his crush hug him like that, but she broke off and he managed to collect himself.

"What are you doing all the way out here, Ryoga?" Akane asked with those friendly beautiful eyes.

"I-I was trying t-to find..." he stuttered, rubbing the back of his head and thinking, '_you, Akane. I was trying to find you_,' but he finished with, "Ranma! I was trying to find Ranma so I could beat him with a new ability I learned! '_And win your heart once and for all, Akane!_' "What are you doing here all by yourself?" he asked.

"I'm here with Ranma and our dads. We were hired by some rich lady to hunt down a demon that was terrorizing her village, but it doesn't look like anyone's lived here in decades, if not centuries. It doesn't make sense."

"Sounds to me like this lady sent you all on a wild goose chase," Ryoga speculated.

"I would think that too, but she paid in advance with cash. Lots of it. You wouldn't spend that kind of money just to mess with someone," she replied.

As they stood there, trying to think of what could possibly have brought them to such a dreary place, they heard a scream ring out in the silence. It was so blood-piercing that it could be heard all the way from where Akane and Ryoga stood.

"That sounded like a girl! She's in danger!" Ryoga said. "It came from that tall building way over there!"

"A girl? That's where... _RANMA!_" Akane screamed.

They ran towards the tower as fast as they could with Ryoga sticking by her side so as not to get lost.

They arrived at the base of the tower but try as they might, even Ryoga couldn't budge the ancient door.

"What are we going to do?" Akane worried aloud.

Then they heard the strangest sound: a moan of pleasure, followed by a whispy laughter.

They both gawked up at the tower wondering what that could possibly have been when Ryoga had an idea.

"Stand back, Akane! This could hurt!"

She ran to hide behind a nearby wall and she heard Ryoga yell, "Bakusai tenketsu!" and the next thing she knew, the door had exploded in a shower of splinters.

When the dust settled, they both ran inside and up the spiral stairs until they reached the top where they were met with a sickening sight.

A tall woman was holding Ranma close to herself with her face hiding in Ranma's neck. Ranma's face, however, was glowing in an expression of pure ecstacy. A pleasure beyond belief.

And they were both soaked in blood.

"Ranma!" Akane shouted, catching the woman's attention.

She slowly pulled her head back to face her new guests with blood dribbling over her lips from the visible wound on Ranma's neck. Looking down to Ranma's neck and seeing two bloody holes pouring freely, Akane and Ryoga noticed that Ranma was in her female form.

'_But- how? The nearest source of water was that fountain!_' she thought before turning her attention to the woman standing over her fiance. An elegantly dressed woman with a face she'll never forget.

"You! You're the one who hired us to come here! What did you do to Ranma?!" she shouted.

The woman simply laughed and wiped the blood from her lips, revealing a set of sharp fangs.

"I couldn't help myself~! This... _girl_ has such a unique scent to her blood. I've never tasted anything like it before! Strange that the boy would turn into a girl during my meal. I suspect some sort of curse is at play here," she mused to her audience.

"Y-you drank Ranma's blood?! What kinda sicko are you?!" Ryoga shouted, baring his own fangs to the beast.

"Hmm... your blood seems somewhat... familiar..." the woman said, taking Ryoga in. "Mind if I..." she began, and then she disappeared. She had moved so fast that neither of them had seen her move behind Ryoga and hold up his chin in her hand. "...refresh my memory?" she finished.

She bore her fangs and began to move in on the paralyzed boy's neck but she stopped when she heard a shout from across the room.

"Leave him... alone, you bitch!" Ranma sputtered, coughing up blood and wobbling to her feet with a hand pressed to her neck to stop the bleeding.

"Oh ho~! So she's still alive after all!" The woman cooed, turning her attention back to Ranma. "I thought you'd be dead by now, little girl. Tell me, exactly how is it that you _are_ a little girl, little girl?"

Ranma seethed with anger and stumbled her way over. With a huge grunt of effort, she swung as hard as she could at the woman but the woman stepped to the side, causing Ranma to stumble and nearly fall down the stairs.

"Ranma!" Akane shouted, going to her aid. "Ranma, are you alright?"

"This... _thing_ isn't human, Akane," Ranma breathed. "She brought us here to kill me. It was all a trap."

"Kill you, dear?" the woman cooed in her whispy voice. "Well yes, I did. I just _had_ to try that unique-smelling blood before another vampire discovered you."

"V-vampire?!" Akane cried in fear. It was true. This woman _was_ a vampire. Right before her eyes, Akane lay witness to a creature of legend.

"You're open!" Ryoga shouted, pulling away and swinging a hard fist into the side of the woman's head. "You shouldn't be so easily distracted!"

The woman rubbed her sore cheek and stared daggers at the boy who struck her. "How DARE you strike a pure-blood! Do you have any idea who I am?! You will pay for your indescretion!"

Like lightning, she once again shot to Ryoga, this time pinning him to the ground. With her fangs bared, she didn't hesitate. Ryoga yelped, struggling at first before succumbing to the ecstatsy flowing through his veins.

The woman pulled up and licked her lips in surprise. "I see, this taste... I've tasted one just like you before, but that was... no, it couldn't be. They didn't have any children before the hunters..."

In her musing over the curiously familiar taste, she didn't notice the firey blast of pure energy that hit her. The energy burned and hit with such force that she was carried out the window by it.

"—_Takabisha_," Ranma finished.

Ryoga's glazed eyes regained their focus and he looked over to see Ranma trembling, barely able to stand.

Seeing that he was alright and the threat was gone, Ranma gave him a wink and a smile before allowing herself to collapse to the floor.

Back at the fountain, the fathers were beginning to worry.

"It's been well over an hour, Saotome! Where could they be? Oh, my precious little girl is missing!" Soun cried, gushing tears as he ran back and forth in a panic.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, Tendo," Genma assured his freind. "They probably met up somewhere and will be heading back shortly." '_I hope_.'

Through the fog, the fathers noticed some figures moving towards them. The first to come through was Akane, looking downtrodden and not looking up to greet the older men.

"Oh Akane, you're alright!" Soun celebrated, somehow shedding more tears than before.

"Where's the boy?" Genma stoicly asked.

Rather than answer, Akane simply looked back towards where she came from.

The other figure came through the fog and was revealed to be Ryoga, carrying an unconscious Ranma in his arms. They both had bandanas tied snugly around their necks. And both were soaked in blood.

* * *

Two days later, Ranma awoke to blinding flourescent lights beaming down at her and the sound of a heart monitor beeping steadily next to her bed. She looked around and realized she was in a hospital bed with an IV dripping blood into her arm. On the series of chairs next to her, she found her bloodstained clothes folded up neatly, a couple of stacked ramen bowls, and Akane and Ryoga fast asleep.

"Heh," Ranma laughed a bit at the sight of Akane drooling. "Akane, wake up. Hey, Akane.." she gently called.

With a flutter of eyelids, Akane slowly awoke.

"R...Ranma? Ranma, you're awake!" she shouted, running to the bedside and throwing her friend into a hug. "Oh Ranma, I was so worried! You've been asleep for two days!"

"It's alright Akane, I'm fine now. Really," she soothed. Wiping a tear from her eye, Akane went back to her seat and woke up Ryoga.

"Hmm? Oh hey, you're finally up," he said. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good. For some reason, I actually feel very refreshed. Did Shampoo come by and wash my hair while I was out or somethin'?" Ranma asked, getting a gently laugh out of Akane.

"Yeah, she was here for about an hour yesterday, right after the nurse gave you a sponge bath. She couldn't stand the sight of dried blood in your hair so she washed with with one of her best shampoos," Akane explained.

"I guess I'll have to thank her later," Ranma said, unconsciously moving her hand towards her neck and noticing there wasn't a bandage or even any spots she could feel where the fangs had bit into her. "Huh, that's weird. What about you, pig boy? You doin' alright?"

"Yeah, no worries here," Ryoga replied, pointing to his own neck that showed the same eerie lack of evidence that anything had happened. "I thought maybe you got infected with something though. After I brought you here that night, you were screaming in your sleep and thrashing around like mad. The staff had to strap you down."

Ranma's eyes went wide with shock. "Really?"

Akane nodded her confirmation. "Whatever it was passed though and then it happened to Ryoga."

He tilted his head down in embarrassment that Akane had seen him in such a state, even though he had no memory of it happening. "I-I'm fine now though. They let me go yesterday."

"Now that I'm up, we should get a nurse in here. I wanna get out of here as soon as I can," Ranma stated. "I wanna find that demon and figure out what the hell happened that night."

"I believe I may be able to help with that," a voice said from the open doorway. The teens turned to see an oddly thin looking man with glasses and a short ponytail, with his hand raised to knock on the open door.

"Really? Who might you be?" Akane asked.

The man stepped in and pushed up his glasses. His long hair framed the sides of his face well, and he gave off an air of elegant beauty.

"How do you do? My name is Kaien Cross, and I may be able to help you."

* * *

**A/N: **Woo! That was fun! The last few nights, I binged my way through Vampire Knight and it gave me the idea to do a fun Halloween story about the Ranma characters thrown into that world. While this IS technically a cross-over, this story is all about Ranma and Ryoga and Akane, and has nothing to do with the plot of the Vampire Knight series. All I'm borrowing are the setting, the lore and how it pertains to vampire rules, and the handful of necessary characters. Expect this one to be a shoujo-ish drama with light action scattered throughout.

I'll get to the next part soon and it will answer some questions you all may have about the story and Ranma's curse and the pairings and all of that. Hold on tight because this should be a fun gothic ride!

I hope you enjoy this, and I hope I can finish it by Halloween. This year.

**Published 10/1/19**


	2. Chapter 2: Twilight Descends

Chapter 2: Twilight Descends

* * *

The mysterious man, introduced as Kaien Cross, entered the small hospital room and closed the door behind him for some air of privacy. He then handed the boy and the girl in the bed small tin containers that, when Ryoga inspected them, he found to contain dozens of little tablets. Both Ranma and Ryoga noted the strong smell of iron emanating from the tins, but Akane seemed oblivious to the smell, probably thinking the tablets to be nothing more than a normal medication.

The man carefully eyed the two and gauged their reactions to the tins. Ranma, for her part, was fairly indifferent to them aside from noticing the strong smell. Ryoga, however, seemed to be staring at them in a daze.

"What you now hold in your hands are special tablets containing all the base ingredients you will now need to quench your... thirst. Should you ever feel the urge to drink, simply dissolve one in a glass of water and drink up. From what I've been told, it's not quite as good as the real thing, but it should keep everyone safe and prolong your descent to a Level E," he solemnly said.

"What are you talking about?" Akane started. "Level E? Thirst? Ranma, do you know what he's on about?"

"Not a clue," Ranma innocently replied.

Ryoga, however, wasn't having such a good time. The scent was beginning to overwhelm him and his eyes were slowly beginning to change color to a dark red as his breath grew more ragged. His eyes drifted away from the tin to stare longlingly at the blood bag slowly draining into Ranma's arm.

Without any sort of thought, Ryoga suddenly stood, scattering the tablets all over the floor as he slowly shambled towards the blood bag.

"Ryoga? Whattar ya doin', buddy? Why ya lookin' at me like that?" Ranma asked with a tinge of fear in her voice.

"Here, give him this! Hurry!" the man shouted, tossing a bottle of water towards Ranma who caught it in a flash.

She wasn't sure what to do, though. Did he want her to trigger Ryoga's curse? "Akane, look away!" Ranma shouted and Akane complied, shutting her eyes tightly.

Ranma unscrewed the bottle's cap and reached over Ryoga's head, ready to pour it out, when the man added, "the tablets! Give him a blood tablet!"

Ranma blinked once at him and then did as she was told, forcing the bottle to Ryoga's lips and squeezing hard.

Ryoga coughed and sputtered but managed to control himself. "What was... why did I do that just now? It was like my body was acting on its own..."

"Take a seat, Ryoga, and I'll explain everything," the man said, double checking that they were indeed alone in the room.

"How do you know my name?" Ryoga asked, bewildered.

"Let me begin at the start, then. As I said, my name is Kaien Cross. I'm the headmaster of a special academy for students... like yourselves. I also belong to a group known as the Hunters. As you might have guessed, we hunt vampires. I heard there was a rogue pure-blood wandering around near hear and when I heard a girl soaked in blood was rushed to the nearest clinic, I had to make sure she was alright," he explained, giving Ranma an annoyingly innocent smile, much to her chagrin.

"So let me guess, because I was attacked by a vampire, you're here to kill me," Ranma said with a deadly glare.

"What? No, no! I was simply sent to investigate the vampire and report what I found!," he explained, waving his hands in front of him to calm her down. "When I heard you were hurt, I felt I had to come see if I could help you. It seems I've already managed to help your friend, here."

"Just what was that, Mr. Cross? What did you give me?" Ryoga asked, eyeing the bottle of light red liquid warily.

"That, my boy, is fake blood. Whenever you get a craving, please do not hesitate to take a tablet. In an emergency, you can chew it outright and drink the water later."

"Blood?! Why would I?" he started, but then he froze in realization. He was bit too. Did that mean...? "...You can't be serious. That's impossible."

Kaien Cross adjusted his glasses and took on a serious tone. "I'm afraid it's true. Any human who is bitten by a pure-blood vampire and survives will turn into a vampire themselves. Over time the thirst will consume you and eat away at your humanity until you are nothing left but a bloodthirsty beast. When that time comes, you must be dealt with before you can hurt anyone. This stage is known as Level E- the end. I'm terribly sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you should know the truth."

This was too much to take in for the trio. Akane stared in horror from Ryoga and back to Ranma, who stared at him in disbelief. After a moment of silence, Akane started quietly sobbing.

"Now now, miss! It's going to be alright! It could take weeks or even months for it to get that bad, and with the help of my academy, we might even be able to prolong it for years!" he tried to soothe Akane, but it wasn't really helping.

Ranma, for her part, had taken to staring at her blood bag hard. She had just realized that the reason she didn't become posessed for it like Ryoga was because it'd been pumped directly into her for two whole days now. She couldn't deny though that it smelled... rather appetizing.

"Just what kinda place do you run, Cross?" Ryoga began. His knuckles were white with clenched fists, trying to accept all of this new information. "Some kinda nut-house for people like us? Just waiting for a bitter end and staving off the inevitable one pill at a time?!"

"In a nutshell, yes," Cross said bluntly, causing the trio to slump in disbelief. "My school consists of a day class of normal human students, and a night class for the vampire students, to try and help them acclimate to life within the human world. Each and every one of them has taken a vow of pacifism to never attack a human, and the goal of the school is to prove that harmony between our peoples can exist."

"So what you're saying is you want us to tag along?" Ranma quietly said, not taking her eyes off her blood bag.

"I believe that would be the best way to help you both, yes. For what it's worth, miss, I've already spoken to your father about this and he agreed to let you attend."

Ranma stared at the blood bag in silence for a moment before replying, "...I see."

"What about me, then? I don't have any money and my parents are... not around," Ryoga asked, also unable to look him in the eye.

"Of course you're welcome to come along as well. You're both welcome to attend!" the man shouted with a glee completely out of place for the situation.

"What about me? I wanna go too!" Akane demanded. She was so worked up at the idea of losing her friends that she stood up and gave Cross a very threatening glare.

"I'm sorry... Akane, was it? I've already discussed this situation with your father as well, and I'm afraid that day class students are required to pay a tuition fee that seemed a bit too high for him. He actually started crying when I got to the third zero..." he said, scratching his cheek at the amusing memory.

Akane was heartbroken. After such a terrible night, her life was changed forever and she was about to lose the only things she really cared about. She couldn't let this go lying down. "I..." she started, trying to control her anger and the tears threatening to return to her eyes, "I can't lose... Ranma is my fiance. I can't... be left alone."

"Really? Your fiance, you say?" Mister Cross said in disbelief. In his surprise, he took another look back at Ranma who simply nodded, and then back to Akane whose tears were silently falling. "Well, far be it from me to judge. I'll swing by your home in a week to pick you up. And please, _please_ don't forget about the blood tablets," he finished, giving Ryoga a fresh pack. "I know these two live at the Tendo Dojo in Nerima, but where do you live, Ryoga? I'd like to personally escort you to the academy and meet your parents if I can. They deserve to know what's happening."

Ryoga sighed. "I..." he began, but Ranma interrupted him.

"He'll be with us next week at the Dojo. It's better that way."

"Eh? You want Ryoga to stay with us?" Akane asked, and Ranma nodded.

"Yeah, otherwise he might wander off. Plus... it's safer this way, don'tchya think? Who knows what would happen if he suddenly tran-," she stopped, realizing she was about to tell her about Ryoga transforming into P-chan and continued, "er, lost his pack or something. He might not get back to his pills in time before he turns into a blood-sucking pig demon or somethin'," she finished with a smirk.

Ryoga's eye twitched. "At least you've got a sense of humor about this, Saotome. And here I thought you'd be blubbering like some weak snivelling little girl!"

"H-Hey!" Ranma shouted, a blush coming to her cheeks, but before she could continue, Akane butted in for her.

"ExCUSE me?! So girls are all weak, Ryoga?" Akane threatened. The irony that she was at that moment a snivelling little girl was completely lost on her.

Ryoga instantly cowered back seeing Akane mad at him. Nothing could make him crumble and fall so easily as the love of his life being angry with him. "I, uh, that is... Sorry, Akane," he faultered, blushing in shame and rubbing the back of his head.

This made Ranma bust up in laughter. "That was great, Akane! Maybe I should have you fight my battles for me more often!" She was laughing so hard, everyone could see her new fangs that had grown in.

Akane joined in on the laughter, making Ryoga blush even deeper in his embarrassed shame. He didn't know how it happened, but he lost the fight with Ranma without even lifting a finger.

Seeing the kids in lighter spirits put a smile on Kaien's face. Even when faced with a hopeless situation, he was glad they were still able to enjoy their company, if only for a while longer.

Saying his goodbyes, he left the kids to the fathers who ran in with a nurse behind them, and within a few hours, the group was safely back at the Tendo Dojo.

And thus began the longest week of their lives.

* * *

"Oh my, Ranma, I was so scared when I heard the news!" Kasumi cried, throwing her arms around the petite girl as they walked in late that night. "Is it true? That you're really a.. a..." she trailed off, unable to say it with how unbelievable it all sounded.

"Vampire? Yeah, it's true. Got the fangs and everything, check 'em out," Ranma said, opening wide to give Kasumi and Nabiki a nice view.

"Wow, they _are_ real!" Nabiki said in surprise. "And your hair's darker too. It's practically blood red!"

At that comment, Ranma pulled the end of her pigtail around to see the tip and sure enough, Nabiki was right. Her hair was such a dark red it almost drew her in with bloodlust. She looked up to realize that Ryoga was staring at her. Not making eye contact, but just staring deeply into her head. He was probably thinking the same thing, but being stared at like a meal still made Ranma nervous.

The sudden attention caused a small blush of embarrassment and she yelled, "Quit starin' at me like that, pork-breath! It's not actually made of blood y'know!"

"Huh? Oh, uh, sorry," Ryoga appologized, ripping his gaze away. He hadn't even noticed that he'd begun to stare.

"Are you all hungry? We ate dinner a few hours ago, but I could heat something up if you'd like," Kasumi offered the group.

The fathers and Akane took her up on the offer, quickly sitting down at the table and eager to tell the others about everything, from the demon hunt itself to the news that Ranma would be going away to a special school.

Ranma, however, only had one thing on her mind: "No thanks, Kasumi. After everything that's happened, all I wanna do now is soak in the furo. You comin', Porky?" Ranma asked, nudging him in the arm with her elbow.

He pulled his arm away quickly with a scowl, but agreed that it would really hit the spot right about now. "Alright, but only if you change before we get in there."

Ranma tilted her head in confusion. "Huh?" She looked down at her top and saw the dried blood.

"He's right, Ranma. Those clothes are going to take a lot of work to clean up, if I can even save them at all," Kasumi said.

"Uh, sis? I think he was talking about getting some hot water," Nabiki clarified with a smirk.

* * *

A few minutes later, Ranma was changed (and changed) and fully scrubbed up. All that was left now was a nice hot soak. He slowly lowered himself into the tub, savoring the relaxing warmth as it permiated his body. "Ahhhh man, I really needed this."

"Me too, Saotome. Me too," Ryoga said.

It must have lasted for at least ten minutes of relaxing silence before a casual thought popped into Ryoga's mind. "Hey, Ranma? Do you think there's a cure for this vampire stuff out there?"

Ranma held his breath for a moment debating on how to respond. Honestly, he wasn't too sure. He wasn't even sure if there was a real cure for their curses out there. One wrong word and Ryoga may lose all hope and destroy the dojo with a massive Shi Shi Hokodan blast, so he decided to go with, "Yeah, I sure hope so. I guess the best chance we have of finding one is going to this stupid school so we can talk to the other night class people and find out for sure."

"I guess you're right. We have to at least try," Ryoga said with a firm determination.

Ranma was glad Ryoga took his answer well. As long as they stick together, they'll figure out a cure and everything would go back to normal. He was sure of it.

Ranma yawned loudly, stretching his arms above his head. "Well, I think I'm about done. I really need to sleep after all of this."

"Hey, your teeth!" Ryoga called out, prompting a quizzical look from Ranma. "They're gone!"

"Whaddarya talkin' about, I got all my teeth!" Ranma bit back, using his tongue to check, but it wasn't that teeth were missing, but rather, that they'd changed. "My fangs, they're gone! My teeth are back to normal!"

"Really? What about mine?" Ryoga asked, opening wide.

"Nope, same as always. What could have changed?" Ranma wondered, but then an idea struck him. "Hey, y'mind goin' and grabbing me a towel from over there?" he asked, pointing to them.

"Get it yourself," Ryoga said firmly.

"I'm gettin' out, aren't you? You're closer."

Ryoga looked at Ranma with a hard glare before conceding and stepping out of the large tub. "Fine, _princess_, I'll get your damn towel for yo—_BWEE!_"

The second Ryoga was out of the tub, Ranma blasted him with cold water from the sprayer.

Ryoga growled and squeeled and jumped right at Ranma's hand hanging over the edge of the tub, biting hard.

"Hold on!" Ranma yelled, bopping P-chan right on the head. "Let go!"

Ryoga fell back but held onto his growl as Ranma drew his hand up to inspect it. It was bleeding just a little, but not from fang marks, just from a normal bite. To be sure, Ranma yanked P-chan off the floor too fast for him to escape and pulled his mouth open wide. P-chan's teeth were completely normal.

"I've got it! We're only vampires as long as we're in our other forms!" Ranma cheered at his revelation, dunking Ryoga back into the furo with a splash.

"You coulda just asked without sprayin' me, Saoto... me..." Ryoga began by yelling but trailed off to stare at the small trickle of blood coming from the bite mark on Ranma's hand.

"Why does your blood... smell so sweet?" he asked, falling into a trance. His eyes turned a bright red once again and he bore his fangs on instinct.

"W-what are ya lookin' at me like that for, huh? Don't you dare think about bitin' me!" Ranma shivered, cowering back from his sort-of friend.

Ryoga lunged at Ranma's hand, making him yelp in fear, but the bite never came. Instead, the second Ryoga's tongue ran over the wound and savored the sweet taste of Ranma's unique blood, he changed. In the furo and all. The second a vampire tasted Ranma's fresh blood, he instantly changed into his female form, regardless of the water.

She cowered against the side of the tub, unable to pull her hand away from Ryoga's. She used her free arm to cover her chest and tried to plead with him through blushing embarrassment, "P-please Ryoga, stop it! Wait, why did I change?! Don't tell me it's because you drank my blood!"

"Hmm?" Ryoga moaned, finally diverting just a little bit of attention away from his snack to look her in the eyes. Those beautiful, formerly sapphire eyes now shown a deep lavender. The eyes of another vampire, and a tasty one at that.

Ranma used this slight moment of distraction to yank her hand away with her lightning speed and crack it hard against his cheek in a slap.

Ryoga regained himself, but was confused by what he saw. It was female Ranma, curled up in a ball in the corner of the tub, desparately trying to cover herself as her face burned like a tomato. She was shaking in fear and clutching her wounded hand close to her heart. A heart that beat loudly in Ryoga's ears.

"I... I'm sorry, Ranma. The smell of your blood just... overwhelmed my senses and I couldn't help myself..." Ryoga bashfully said, taking a step out of the furo and drying off with a towel. "How did you change in the hot water?" he asked, without taking a look behind him.

"I-I don't know! Must be because you're a vampire too and... I don't know!" she flustered, stepping out of the tub and after a second, jumping right back in. She was a he once again. "Phew, that's a relief. I was thinkin' for a second there that my curse mighta been locked again. But hey, I figured out how to beat this stupid vampire curse! Just stay a guy as long as I can! It's a win-win!" Ranma laughed.

Ryoga wasn't laughing though.

"And for me, I'd have to be P-chan forever..." he sighed, turning his head down.

Ranma could see a sickening purple and green aura emanate from around Ryoga's body. His heart sank as he realized Ryoga was about to blast a hole straight through the ozone layer with his depression ki, let alone destroy the whole house! He had to do something!

"Hey, buddy, calm down!" Ranma said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll get through this. We'll find a cure together at this academy we're goin' to. Don't lose hope yet."

Ryoga sighed.

"I'll... try."

* * *

The next morning at breakfast, Ranma announced his little discovery to the group to cheers and congratulations from his father in particular.

"I knew you could overcome this, boy!" he shouted in glee, throwing his arm around Ranma's neck and pulling him in close. "Now you just have one more reason to avoid that annoying cursed side of yours!"

Ranma backed away sheepishly and noticed how this praise was affecting Ryoga's mood. While Ranma may have found a loophole to this new curse, poor Ryoga was stuck with it. His only options were to be a vampire for the rest of his human life, or stay a piglet forever. Such a choice was something Ranma couldn't fathom having to make. He really felt for his sometimes-rival.

"C'mon, Ranma! We have to get going if we're going to drop off your transfer paperwork before class starts," Akane said bitterly, waving the papers in front of his face. She was clearly upset by his leaving and frustrated that there didn't seem to be anything she could do about it.

"Alright, alright, I'm goin' already," Ranma started. He turned to his friend and saw the sullen look on his face overtake him once again. The sickening purple and green aura was beginning to crackle around him. Faintly, but surely. "Ryoga, buddy, y'alright? Whatchya gonna do while we're at school?"

Ryoga was snapped out of his depressing introspection by the question and snapped his head up to look Ranma in the eye, dissipating his aura instantly. "I'm not sure. I don-"

"He'll be staying here with me for the week, if you don't mind," Kasumi interrupted with a smile on her face.

"Huh? Why?" Ryoga asked innocently.

"So I can help tutor you. I know you've been out of school for a while, and this new academy of yours probably won't give you any slack. I know I can't teach you years worth of schooling that you missed, but I can at least help with catching you up just a little."

Ryoga didn't know what to think. All he could say was, "Th-thank you, Kasumi. I really appreciate that."

"We'll see you later, ok?" Akane called to him with a small wave from the doorway.

"Take care, Akane," Ryoga waved back, lost in his own little world seeing that Akane cared about him, if only just a little.

"Later man," Ranma uncerimoniously said to Ryoga. "Don't forget your tablets, alright?"

Ryoga responded by holding up his tin canister full of them.

Ranma gave him a nod and left out the door to catch up to Akane.

They arrived at the school a little early as planned and explained the situation to the vice principal, who handled the paperwork. It was official, Ranma was going to transfer away to some school nobody knew. They went to class and the whole day went normally. That is, until lunch anyway.

When the bell rang and the students all bowed to the teacher before he left, Ranma had realized his leg had been twitching. He had reached down to get his lunchbox from his bag and the second he had it open, the involuntary twitching started again.

"Ranma, are you alright?" Akane asked, noticing how her friend couldn't seem to sit still.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine Akane, I'm just hungry is all," he replied.

After lunch, things hadn't really gotten better. Even though he had eaten, he was still hungry; hungry to the point where he felt ill. Throughout the afternoon classes, his leg bounced and he kept spinning his pencil between his fingers. He needed to _do_ something, but he couldn't figure out what. He was starting to feel sick to his stomach and like he needed to leave but he couldn't figure out why.

When gym class came, he thought he could burn some of this energy by running laps but he felt sluggish and found it hard to move. While he was always the first person in class to finish their laps, today he was the last, which the whole class found shocking. He wasn't just jogging, he was practically dragging his feet as he went. Even Gosunkugi finished before him.

And worse was the noise. All around him, as students passed, he could hear their hearts pounding from the exercise. The constant thumping drowned out all of his other senses to the point where he collapsed on the ground, covering his ears to try and end the deafening throbs.

"Ranma! Is something wrong, man?" Hiroshi asked his friend on the ground. "Bad sushi or something?"

Ranma scoffed. "Yeah, bad sushi. I'm fine, I just... I need to go..."

"Ranma, do you need one of your... pills?" Akane carefully asked, wary of her audience.

"No, I'm a guy, I shouldn't need one!" he bit back.

"Maybe you should take one anyway to feel better?" she offered, but Ranma just scowled at her in response.

"I left 'em at home 'cause I shouldn't need them as a guy!"

Moments later, the whistle was blown marking the end of class and, being the last class of the day, Ranma didn't bother going back to the locker room to change, he just ran straight to the school gate wearing his white t-shirt and red sweats from class.

Akane called after him, but it was no use. He was already long gone and needed to get home. He _needed_ to try taking one of the tablets. He felt so nauseous and dizzy that he barely landed on the rooftops, running from house to house, until he finally stumbled into the Tendo home where he found Kasumi and Ryoga sitting around the dining table with several books strewn out over it and a single glass of light red water sitting by Ryoga.

"Oh, welcome home, Ranma! Isn't Akane with you?"

In Ranma's stupor, he ignored Kasumi and dove straight for the glass. He took one deep swig and immediately started coughing it up.

"Woah, slow down Saotome, you're gonna choke!" Ryoga said, patting Ranma's back as he sputtered up the water.

"This is... _disgusting!_" Ranma snarled to no one in particular. His face was a complex mixture of pain and determination. He broke away from Ryoga and ran straight to the kitchen sink, blasting himself with some cold water and reaching up to the cupboard for a glass.

She fished around for the glass, knocking dishes to the floor and splashing water everywhere as she hastily took her tablets out of a drawer and threw two in her mouth. She took her glass and gulped the whole thing down in seconds flat.

The sense of relief matched that of a thirsty man finding a clean oasis in the desert after weeks of wandering the sands. It immediately relaxed her to the point where she needed a moment to collect herself, collapsing on the wet floor and closing her eyes.

"Ranma, what the hell is wrong with you?" Ryoga yelled, entering the scene of the crime. He found Ranma laying on the floor near the running sink, laying in a pile of broken glass and ceramic, and completely soaked through her white top.

"Huh? Ryoga?" she said, finally opening her eyes to look up at him, but he wouldn't look at her for some reason. His face was beet red and he seemed very upset about something.

She sat up and looked around herself, realizing what a mess she'd made.

"Ranma, how could you!" Kasumi shouted in horror, seeing half of her dishes destroyed.

"I'm so sorry Kasumi, I didn't mean to, I was just... really, really thirsty," Ranma sheepishly apologized while rubbing the back of her head in shame. "Let me clean this up for you. It's all my fault," she offered, beginning to collect the shards of glass but she was stopped by Kasumi.

"Go get changed first, Ranma. I can't have you exposing yourself like that when we have a guest," Kasumi chided.

Ranma tilted her head in confusion, but looked down to see that the white shirt she was wearing from gym was now entirely soaked through, and showing her breasts through the thin fabric for the whole world to see.

And that's when she realized why Ryoga wouldn't look at her.

Nervously, she threw her arms around her chest to hide her learned shame (after years of living with the Tendo sisters, she _had_ finally picked up on some femenine modesty when guys were around) and ran past Ryoga to the stairs. "Careful in there, you don't wanna get cut on that glass!"

Kasumi, however, was already leaning over to pick up some of the shards. Ryoga offered to help, feeling awkward about just standing there and watching.

"Oh no, you're a guest here, you shouldn't have to bother," Kasumi said, but Ryoga wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Please, I want to feel useful," he said, bending down and collecting a few shards of his own.

A few seconds later, the inevitable happened and Kasumi slit her finger on a shard of glass. She gave a slight yelp and before Ryoga could ask if she was ok, he saw the small bead of blood collecting on her fingertip and was mezmerized by the vision.

His eyes began to glow and he crawled over to her slowly.

"It's nothing to worry about, Ryoga. It's just a small nick," Kasumi said, mistaking his interest. She was about to bring the wound to her lips when Ryoga gently grabbed her hand instead.

"Please, allow me," he said, carefully licking the blood off her finger, making her blush.

Ranma suddenly appeared in the doorway, wearing one of her chinese silk tops over the gym sweatpants that were still on her and still very wet.

"What happened? I smelled blood!" she cried, running up to the scene of Ryoga gently pressing his lips to Kasumi's finger.

"What the hell are you doing to her, you pig!" she yelled, kicking him away from her and into the next room. "Kasumi, are you ok? Did he attack you?!" she asked in a panic but Kasumi just shook her head with a smile.

"Oh no, he was being very nice and helping to stop the bleeding, see?" she said, holding up her finger which had already stopped bleeding, just as she said. "Ryoga is such a nice young man. I hope all vampires can be like him."

Ranma's jaw dropped seeing Kasumi's innocent smile and she gave up, leaning down to the floor to collect the pieces of the dishes she broke.

When Ryoga returned to the kitchen rubbing his sore cheek, he scowled at Ranma who sheepishly said 'sorry' and turned back to the task at hand. After another moment of simmering in anger, he joined her, and they both shared a look in silence.

Even though they didn't say it aloud, they both knew what this meant: they weren't safe from the vampiric urges in their other forms, either.

* * *

The rest of the week went on with little incident. Everyone had explained the situation to Ukyo and Shampoo, who both cried so hard with their arms wrapped around Ranma that he nearly changed from the tears alone, and Cologne simply wished him luck, promising to try and find out what she could about this 'vampire problem' before Ranma returned at the end of the semester.

For his part, Ryoga had made it home with help from Ranma and Akane and he had a tearful reunion with his dog Checkers. Ryoga left a letter on the kitchen counter for his parents, explaining everything and where to find him. Ryoga hugged his dog goodbye with Akane promising to come by and spend time with her while they were away, and together the group headed back to the dojo to await their future.

And finally, the day had come.

The family stood out in the dojo's entranceway, a beautiful stone walkway adorned by trees and shrubs on either side, leading to the outer gate. The gate was open, just waiting for a car to pull up.

It was nearly dusk when it finally arrived.

Out popped the jovial headmaster with an excited 'Hello~!' to the group and he ran over to greet them all. With handshakes and gentle bows, Kaien Cross introduced himself to Kasumi and greeted the rest of the family he knew, but he was surprised when he saw that two people were missing.

"Where might Ranma be? She knows that today's the day, right?" Kaien asked, looking over the group. "And I'm surprised Akane's not here to send her off. Did they go somewhere together?"

Ranma, who had gone unnoticed until now, cleared his throat. "I'm right here, Mr. Cross."

The tall man stepped over and adjusted his glasses as he leaned down to examine the shorter boy in front of him. "And who might you be?"

"It's me. I'm Ranma," he said exhasperatedly.

"Really? But... I must say, I'm confused," the man replied.

Ranma simply sighed. "Hold on a sec," he said, turning back to the house and returning a moment later with a glass of water in hand. "Now don't blink or you'll miss it."

He held the glass above his head and poured, revealing the smaller redhead Kaien had met last week in the hospital. "This vampire thing ain't my only problem."

To say Kaien was shocked would be an understatement. He jumped back and looked the girl over, taking off his glasses to clean them and replacing them to find she was still indeed a girl. "Fascinating! Absolutely fascinating!" he exclaimed, taking her hands in his. "How in the world is this possible?"

Ranma gave him an incredulous look. "You're the guy who started a school for vampires and this is where ya draw the line? It's a curse I picked up in China, alright? Just somethin' I gotta deal with."

"Curse or no, this does raise a peculiar issue..." Kaien said, folding his arms and tilting his head in thought. "I'd already assigned you to the night class dorm rooming with another girl. I doubt she'd take kindly to there suddenly being a boy present. You'll have to be careful about hiding this curse of yours."

Ranma scowled. "This IS the curse! I'm a GUY, damnit!"

Kaien was taken aback by the sudden outburst of anger. "Now now, calm down, calm down. If that's the case, I may just be able to change it so that you'll room with Ryoga here, assuming he's ok with your 'curse'," he propositioned, turning his attention to Ryoga.

"Yeah, I'm ok with it I guess," he said, idly tapping his fingertips together and avoiding eye contact. "I... kinda... have one too..." he murmered, thankful that Akane wasn't here for this.

"I see! Well, then I'll have to secure new uniforms for the both of you. Luckily, the students are on break this week so few are milling about the dorms right now. You'll be welcome to stay at my house until I get this dorm situation figured out. And you'll have to tell me the whole story over dinner! I'm an excellent cook~!" he said with a flourish before laughing to himself.

Everyone just deflated at the sight, all thinking the same thing: this guy's really strange.

Suddenly he stopped laughing and took on a serious tone. "We do have to solve a problem here, though. Will you be attending as boys or girls? I doubt you could get away with both. The uniform policy is very strict."

"I'm a _GUY_, I said!" Ranma shouted, followed up by Ryoga shouting, "and I don't turn into a girl, I turn into a pig!", both blushing at the idea of it all.

"...So just the one new uniform, then," Kaien decided.

"Damn straight!" Ranma shouted, whipping around with a flush on her face as she stalked back into the house to find some hot water. This was getting embarrassing.

When he returned, he'd calmed down a bit but he was still scowling from embarrassment. "And by the way, I found out that when I'm a guy, I'm not a vampire. See?" he said, opening wide to show the lack of fangs.

"This just keeps getting more and more interesting!" Kaien cried. Oh, the things that he could learn from this kid! "But that begs the question, do you still crave blood as a boy, or are you entirely human?"

Ranma sighed and rubbed his arm. "I... still get the cravings, yeah. And they're super strong. I kinda... had an episode a few days ago after school."

"Hmm..." Kaien said, going back to his deep thoughts. "And do the tablets help as well when you're a boy?"

Ranma shook his head. "'fraid not. I can't even drink it as a guy, it's so disgusting I almost threw up."

"Hmm... This is a major problem, Ranma," he said seriously, grabbing Ranma's full attention. "You see, the day class students don't know that the night class are vampires. If you suddenly transformed in the daytime to go get a quick drink, not only would you miss class, but you'd either cause a panic, or worse. And we can't have you thrashing about from thirst. Someone could get hurt, and it'd only accelerate your descent into a Level E." He sighed. "No, I'm afraid you'll have to stay with the night class for your own good as well as that of the students. I'm sorry to ask this of you."

"Ask what?" Ranma pondered, slowly letting it sink in what Kaien was getting at. "No... You can't mean... No! I won't go to school as a girl! No way in hell!"

Kaien sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I'm asking you to attend as a vampire, your sex has nothing to do with it."

"No! Screw this whole thing, I'm out!" Ranma shouted to the shock and surprise of everyone except the fathers who sagely nodded in understanding.

Nodoka was fighting off the tears threatening to run down her face. "Oh, what a manly son I have!"

Ranma ignored that comment. "I don't care if I end up a monster or whatever! When that time comes, I'll just jump off a bridge or commit seppuku or something."

The conviction in his eyes really shook Kaien, but more than that, he found this male pride to be sad. "You'd rather kill yourself than try to live out a normal life, even if it means going to class as a girl?" He couldn't fathom it. Yes, it's not ideal, and there's no way to know how many years Ranma would live before descending to a Level E, but surely that would be the lesser of two evils compared to death. "It's admirable that you'd want death before descending to a Level E so as not to hurt others, but there is still a reason to live. You just... have to find it."

Neither of them noticed the affect this conversation was having on Ryoga. Ranma was right, as a martial artist it's dishonorable to let himself become a rampaging monster of death, and the only way to retain his honor before that happened would be to perform seppuku when the time came. For his part, Ryoga couldn't come up with a reason to put it off that long. Ranma had Akane, and the dojo, and an heir to look forward to before he died, but Ryoga? What did he have? A girl who's only interested in him for his cursed form, the thing he hated most in the whole world? Well, save for Ranma, anyway.

His depression ki was starting to spark into the visible spectrum so strong that it pulled Ranma away from his childish argument to his sort-of friend with a shock of worry on his face.

"Oh crap, we must have set him off again..." Ranma trailed off, rushing over and grabbing Ryoga by the shoulders, giving him a violent shake. "Hey, knock that crap off! Don't you dare go off tryin' to kill yourself and leave me with this psycho and his nuthouse all alone!"

Kaien frowned at the boy and commented, "I resent that, you know. I'm only trying to help you."

But Ranma didn't hear him. He could feel Ryoga's ki building and soaking into his arms and shook harder. "Snap out of it! You wanna destroy the dojo and kill everyone here?!"

"I'm only going to end up killing them someday anyway, when I become that monster. Why put off the inevitable?" he said quietly with dead eyes.

Ranma slapped him. Hard. Hard enough to earn a scowl and the attention of his friend.

"When the time comes, I'll take you out! Until then, you promised we'd watch each other's backs, remember? Even if I weren't a vampire, my mom would probably make me commit seppuku someday anyway. Until then, we need to stick together!" he shouted, fear seeping into his voice.

Now it was Nodoka's turn to frown. "Are you trying to tell me something, Ranma?" She instinctively readied her blade.

Kaien was taken aback by the gesture, realizing the woman was armed. He couldn't help but sweat in fear of what he might witness tonight.

The boys, however, ignored her.

Ryoga sighed and broke away from Ranma's grip, with his visible depression ki vanishing into nothing. "So it's a murder-suicide pact, then?" he asked, half in disbelief.

"On my honor as a martial artist," Ranma declared holding out his hand for a shake. Hesitantly, Ryoga took it and together they shared a look of determination. This was a man to man promise, and one they both intended to keep.

Kaien gulped at the scene. "It's not all downhill from here, you know. If... you think you can handle it, I suppose I can try to enroll you in _both_ classes Ranma, but should there ever be an incident or it becomes too much pressure, you'll be in the night class full time. With everything that entails."

"I accept your challenge," Ranma said with a nod. "And Ranma Saotome never loses."

"See that you don't," was all Kaien could say to that. "Well, if you're ready to leave, we should probably get going. The academy is a two hour flight from here, and it's nearly time," he said, checking his watch.

The boys nodded and grabbed their giant travel packs, saying their goodbyes to the family, and just as they started walking to the car, the group heard a shout from an upstairs window.

"Wait, wait! Hold on, we figured it out!" Akane cried, rushing to the stairs with Nabiki jogging to keep up.

"Huh? Figured what out?" Ranma asked.

Akane ran up with an unexpected smile blooming on her face. She was positively beaming! "Nabiki helped me figure out how I could go with you!" she exclaimed.

"But how? I thought for normal students, it was really expensive!" said Ranma.

"Easy, Ranma-chan~!" Nabiki said, finally catching up to her sister. "We'll use that money from the vampire lady. Of course, not _all_ of it..." she said with a grin. "But there's plenty to cover a year's worth of a boarding school. Even a few uniforms!"

"See? She did the math and already sent the deposit in from her computer! I'm going with you!" Akane nearly cried, throwing her arms around Ranma in pure happiness, causing him to blush and awkwardly flail his arms, not knowing how to react.

"That's, uh, that's great, Akane!" he said, finally managing to pull her off. "But aren't you scared? There's gonna be other vampires there... and stuff..."

"I'm not scared at all, not with you two around! Nothing can beat you guys, not even the best vampire in the world! Not when you team up! You're the strongest fighters ever!"

Ranma decided she was only lumping on the praise out of her excitement at going, but Ryoga was actually cheered up by it. Sure, he didn't really have a crush on her anymore, but there were still some feelings there and it felt nice to know that she believed in him.

"Th-thank you, Akane," he blurted out with a blush.

"I already packed too, let me go grab my stuff, and-" she started, speaking a mile a minute, before being cut off by Kaien.

"But, miss Tendo, I only had tickets for the three of us..." he quietly admitted. He really wasn't expecting a tag-along.

"That's ok, there should be plenty of extra from that vampire lady to cover it, right Nabiki?"

Nabiki nodded with a smile, just glad to help her sister. And to get relief from all the crying and whining she was unloading on her this past week. If it takes a hit to her personal cut to avoid that, she'll take it. She also didn't notice that Soun and Genma were crying rivers at losing the substantial sum of money.

"Vampire lady? What money?" Kaien asked.

"The lady who bit them, Mr. Cross," Akane began, turning to face the young headmaster. "She paid a huge sum of money to get us to go to that ghost town where she bit Ranma and Ryoga. Of course, we didn't know she was a vampire when we met her that first time."

Kaien was shocked at this development. "A pure-blood rogue _paid_ you to lure you into her den under false pretenses to attack you? That's... a terrifying development. I'll have to call the guild immediately when we get to the academy."

Ranma sagged his shoulders. "It's like I was being hunted down personally or something," he said with a sigh.

"Maybe it's because your blood tastes so great?" Ryoga offered as an explanation. "It's almost intoxicating. A-at least, when you're a girl, anyway..." he shied away, rubbing the back of his head. It was pretty embarrassing to admit his friendly rival was something he desired for himself. His blood, that is.

"This is even more troubling," said Kaien. "She hunted you down with extreme effort. She really went out of her way to lure you into her den so far from here. That your blood is that enticing to a pure-blood rogue is a terrifying prospect. Unique blood may have to do with your curse."

"I uh," Ranma blushed, unable to look Kaien in the eyes. "I also changed into a girl when she bit me... and again when Ryoga here licked the blood off my hand when he- er, when I got hurt."

"This... requires research. A lot of research. Let me assure you, you will all be safest at the academy. The head of the night class is one of the most elite vampires in the world and he helps to protect the school. No vampire would dare cross him, no matter how deranged. The school is a sanctuary."

He turned to the family, specifically Genma, Nodoka, and Soun. "They will be in possibly the safest place on Earth. However, if you see or hear anything strange, or if that woman shows up again, do not hesitate to contact my personal number," he said, handing them a business card.

"Well then, we really should get going if we want to catch that flight," he said, addressing the kids once again.

The boys nodded and once again said their goodbyes while Akane hugged her dad.

The group loaded into the rental car and shortly found themselves airborne.

The next stop would be the first chapter in their new lives at Cross Academy.

* * *

**A/N: **This... may not be done by halloween as I'd hoped. I also decided that, even though it really has little to do with the plots and main characters of Vampire Knight, it really does belong in the crossover section. Sorry 'bout that.

Also, I thought I'd clarify when this all takes place. For Ranma, this is sometime post-manga but not too far after the ending. They've still got a year and change left in school. As for Vampire Knight, I don't know that universe as well but I think it'd be best placed before the show starts. I haven't read the manga yet. So, as far as the school goes, this is before Zero starts showing symptoms and before all of that drama begins. Ranma and crew are just students who go there. They'll meet Yuki and Kaname and all that, but they're not major players here, just necessary background fodder. For the vampire students, I'll be using a lot of original character as well because I can never remember the names of the main clique and I think it'd be better that way anyway lol. There's other vampires going there besides the aristocrats, y'know.

**Published 10/15/19**


	3. Chapter 3: Circle of the Moon

Chapter 3: Circle of the Moon

...

The following day, the group found themselves standing in front of what looked on the outside like a gothic castle, complete with high stone walls and intricate carvings in stone peering down at the students below. It was late in the day so the headmaster ushered them into the compound and towards his own house near the rear of the academy grounds. Being nearly dusk, it was about time for the night class to make their presence known.

Day students were being controlled by two who the headmaster explained were the disciplinary committee, who tried to prevent interaction (and therefore accidents) between the two classes. They were amassed like a mob on the sides of a path leading out from a massive gate with a moon carved high above into the framing. Oddly enough, the massive group of day students were comprised solely of girls, save for one boy with thick glasses.

Akane was perplexed by this scene unfolding as they walked past. "What's going on over there? Some sort of event?"

Mr. Cross shook his head. "No, that's just the normal group of fangirls waiting for the night class to arrive. This is their dormatory, and at dusk every day, the classes are changed over. Day class students are sent to their dorms and it's the night class' turn to enter the school. The same thing happens in reverse every morning at dawn, though there's no crowds out in front of the day class dorms. Many of the day class students have returned home for this vacation week, but for those who stayed behind, it appears they still line up anyway."

"Why? What's so special about night class other than that they're vam... er, well, you know..." Akane continued, catching herself mid-sentence as she remembered the truth about night class was to remain a secret for the safety of the day class students.

"Oh, you'll see..." Cross said with a smirk, stopping so the group could watch what would happen.

Ranma and Ryoga were confused, but didn't think anything serious was happening. Their danger senses weren't tingling, but they could sense that something powerful was just beyond that door.

And with the deep creaking of the giant wooden doors opening, the crowd of girls erupted into a scream of excitement.

Out came the aristocratic elite of the night class, dressed either in suits or fashionable casual wear, and looking absolutely dashing in every way. The girls screamed over the half-dozen beautiful boys, wanting nothing more than for one of them to look their way, and the one girl in the group was hounded by the pleas from the boy in the crowd with the thick glasses.

Together, this group of gorgeous students tried their best to ignore the crowds as they walked past when the one in front, a tall boy with long black hair, suddenly stopped and looked up towards the group being escorted by Mr. Cross.

He locked eyes with Ranma in particular, who didn't know how to respond. It wasn't a threatening gaze, but it made him feel uncomfortable nonetheless.

Soon, the whole group of night students had stopped to stare at him and Ryoga.

The moment of silence lingered for far too long. Finally, the nervous pigtailed boy scratching his cheek decided to break the ice. "Um... yo?"

The man in front turned as if snapped out of a daze to face his fellow students behind him. "You all can go to town without me tonight. It appears I have some business here. Behave yourselves."

Without a word, they all nodded and proceeded to walk away, never taking their eyes off the new boys.

The head student walked forward to the group and finally introduced himself.

"My name is Kaname Kuran, and I believe there is much to discuss here judging by your... smell."

The way he said 'smell' made the three new kids all cringe.

"Kaname, these are some special new students I'd like you to meet. Akane Tendo of the day class, Ryoga Hibiki of the night class, and Ranma Saotome of... both, I suppose?" Kaien said, making Ranma turn away with a scowl, having been reminded of his unique situation.

"I... see. Are you by chance heading towards your manor? Mind if I accompany you?" Kaname asked, still staring at agitate pigtailed boy.

"Not at all, you're always welcome to join us for dinner!" Kaien said with a bright smile before turning his attention to the two students trying to hold back the fangirls. "Yuki! Zero! We'll be having guests for dinner tonight!" he called. "Try not to be too long!"

"Yes, headmaster!" the girl struggled to say, pushing back against the crowd. The boy simply nodded.

Kaien sighed and drooped his shoulders. "For once I'd like her to call me 'father'."

...

Later in the evening, the group was finally amassed around a modestly sized dining table, laid about with western dishes that Ranma Ryoga and Akane found exotic.

"That's the kinda stuff I've only seen on the road!" Ranma couldn't help but say aloud, seeing the spread of roast turkey and side dishes.

"Did you really live on the streets for ten years, Ranma?" Yuki asked, astonished by the tale. She was shorter than Akane and probably a year or two younger, and had messy shoulder-length brown hair. From what the group had learned, she was the adopted daughter of the headmaster himself, and as such, knew everything about the night class.

What came as a shock to the group was when Kaname introduced himself as the head vampire in the school, and possibly one of the most respected in the world. When asked why, he told them how he was one of the last remaining pure-blood vampires out there, and as such, he had authority over all the others. This revelation only made Ranma scoff in disbelief, but Ryoga and Akane found the story fascinating.

Ranma took his eyes off the turkey and looked to the younger girl with a sense of pride. "Sure did! I spent ten years on a training journey to become the best martial artist in the world! A man among men!" he boasted.

Just then, Mr. Cross accidentally spilled some water on the boy, tripping as he returned from the kitchen with his glass.

Yuki, Zero, and Kaname were taken aback while Ryoga and Akane laughed at Ranma's misfortune.

"W-what just happened to you?! Is this some kind of trick?!" Yuki exclaimed, unsure how to take this new information.

Ranma sighed yet again. "It's just a curse I picked up in China, nothing to worry about. It's triggered by water."

"And blood-sucking, apparently," Kaien added, sharing a glance with Kaname.

"How interesting," Kaname began, looking the petite redhead over. "Your scent changed when you transformed just now. You smell... familiar."

"How so?" Ranma said with a scowl, really not liking the way he was looking at her.

"You smell like a pure-blood, but that should be impossible. You were bitten by a pure-blood, correct?"

She nodded.

"Then by all accounts, you should smell of a human convert. In your male form, you smell that way but with a tinge of something else. Something... more powerful. Tell me, are you related to any vampires? Any vampire blood at all?"

Ranma sulked. "None that I'm aware of, but I don't know of any family beyond my parents. Given how crazy my life is, I wouldn't be surprised."

"How interesting. While it's never been known to happen before, it's possible that being bitten awakened that dormant blood. If you were truly a pure-blood, this would mean you'd never descend to a Level E. Still, if the opportunity to drink arises, don't take any chances. This goes for you as well, Ryoga."

Ranma and Ryoga blinked at him in confusion.

"Whaddaya mean, an 'opportunity to drink'?" Ranma asked.

"The only way to prevent your descent to a Level E is to become a normal vampire. And the only way to do that is to drink the blood of your sire. You'd have to drink from that woman who bit you both."

The trio was stunned at this information.

"A normal vampire? Does this mean... we'll never be fully human again?" Ryoga solemly asked.

"And what about my guy side? I'm human as a guy!" Ranma shouted.

"You may seem human, but you still get cravings, do you not?" Kaname asked, to have Ranma nod in response. "And as for your question Ryoga, I'm afraid not. These are the only two paths that lie ahead of you. I'm sorry, but it's the truth."

Ryoga nodded and turned his eyes to the table, trying hard to control himself. To never be human again? To always have these vampiric urges? His life only seemed to be getting worse. First there's his family's 'condition', then he gets that stupid pig curse that they can't seem to find a cure for, and now he's doomed to be a vampire for life. His thoughts were bringing his depression ki to the forefront again, manifesting in a sickeningly purple and green hue around his whole body.

It became so thick that it caused everyone at the table to back up in fear, everyone except Ranma, who put her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, c'mon buddy, it's not hopeless, alright?" she said to him, but partially to ease her own similar worries. "First thing's first, we need to find that bitch and keep from becoming monsters, alright? From there, we just gotta watch each other's backs. Ranma Saotome never loses, and if you're with me, you'll never lose either. You got that, Ryoga?" she said, turning his face by the chin to stare him directly in his emerald green eyes. "Stay with me. We'll get through this."

Ryoga blushed at the contact and the determined support from his rival and turned away, his ki dissipating in the process.

Sensing the danger was over, everyone returned to their seats.

"What was that about?" Yuki asked, unsure of what she just saw.

"Oh, it's nothing serious," Akane explained with a smile. "He's just a little bipolar is all. He's had a rough life."

Kaname cleared his throat and began to focus on Ryoga. "When your power flared up just now, something struck me. Tell me Ryoga, do _you_ have any family history of vampirism?"

"No, I don't really kno-" he began but was cut off by Ranma pulling his mouth wide to show off his fangs.

"Sure he does! See these puppies? He's had these his whole life!" She chuckled as Ryoga slapped her hands away and gave her a scowl.

"How very interesting. I have much to learn about you both over the coming months," Kaname said with a slight chuckle of his own.

Zero, who'd been quietly brooding this whole time, finally took this moment to stand up and make his presence known.

"Headmaster, may I be excused? I'm getting sick of all this 'vampire' talk," he spat.

"What, now? But we're just getting started!" Kaien pleaded but Zero took off down the hall anyway. "That poor boy, whatever shall I do with him," Kaien said aloud to himself.

"I take it he doesn't care for vampires?" Akane asked.

"That's putting it lightly," Yuki answered with a soft laugh.

...

Later that night found Ryoga and Ranma together in a room to themselves. Kaien's manor certainly had a lot of space to offer rooms for both Yuki and Zero and still have the guest rooms for the boys and Akane. They'd all cleaned up and bathed for the night and retired to their respective rooms, but the boys were still wide awake and laying in their beds, just staring at the cieling.

Ranma was getting really worried about his friendly rival. Lately, all of these new developments were setting off his depression in dangerous ways. It's a wonder he didn't blow up the plane on the way out here! What's more, he's been a lot quieter than usual. There's been less playful teasing between them, and it seemed to Ranma that Ryoga was receeding inward. This was very unsettling to Ranma, having seen how far Ryoga's gone in the past with his depression ki. He damn near killed himself that day he let off the perfect shi-shi hokodan blast.

It was eerie knowing that Ryoga was capable of such destruction, and yet he'd been so quiet it seemed like he could be set off at a moment's notice. What was going through his mind? He had to know if he could help in some way. Ryoga was one of Ranma's oldest friends, and now they were in a bad situation where neither of them had any stake in it. This wasn't some contest for Akane's heart or some contest to prove who was stronger. This was something that couldn't be overcome with training alone. It needed willpower and the inner strength to continue on. Ranma was confident he'd live through this someway or another, but he was seriously worried that Ryoga might take the coward's way out and lose to his depression. He was determined to prevent that from happening.

"What are you starin' at, Saotome?" Ryoga suddenly barked from his bed, snapping Ranma out of his thoughts. He had no idea he'd been staring at Ryoga. He jerked his gaze away and back to the cieling.

"I'm just wonderin' how you're doin' is all," he said. "The way you almost exploded at dinner got me worried. Can I trust you to stay in control?"

"What are you, my mother? Leave me alone, Ranma!" he nearly shouted, rolling on his side away from the pigtailed boy.

"Hey, I'm just lookin' out for you is all!" Ranma shouted, jumping to his feet. "We're friends, aren't we? We swore we'd get through this together!"

"Yeah, well, right now I just wish I could run away and get lost, but Cross made sure to tell everyone about that so I'll never be able to get out of this damn castle! Is this where I'm gonna spend the rest of my life? Stuck at this school like a prisoner?! I'm better off getting lost in the woods as P-chan. Maybe I'll get lucky and get eaten by a tiger or something."

His ki was beginning to glow once again, startling Ranma. This was going the exact opposite of the way he'd hoped.

"You don't think I'm struggling to accept this too? That I'll be a vampire for the rest of my life as a best case scenario? You think I want that?" Ranma shouted.

"What DO you want, Saotome?" Ryoga snarled back at him, turning to look him in the eyes.

"I just wanna get through this alive. And I couldn't live with myself if I let you slip up and die or become a Level E or whatever. I feel guilty, ok?"

"Guilty? Why?" Ryoga blinked, his anger and depression somehow dissipating.

Ranma sighed and sat down on the edge of his bed. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been turned. I had no idea you'd show up like that. I don't know what I would have done if you'd been killed, or Akane... Akane'd been..." he was shaking, seemingly on the verge of tears over the idea of what could possibly have happened to Akane there. "I could never forgive myself."

Ryoga didn't know how to respond to that. He'd rarely ever seen his rival so emotionally exposed like this. Clearly this was getting to him too, and he was just good at hiding it.

"We'll get through this together. These classes here are supposed to help us cope with this, right?" Ryoga said.

"Yeah. And that Kaname guy seems to know a lot too. It might be good to stay on his good side until we find that bitch who bit us."

"Yeah. And with the help of the other vampires, we might be able to find a lead," Ryoga realized.

"We should get some rest. We have that orientation in the morning," Ranma remembered, finally allowing himself to relax a bit, seeing Ryoga's calmed down again.

"You're right," Ryoga sighed, climbing under the covers.

Ranma did the same and after a few moments of silence, he piped up, "Hey, Ryoga?"

"Yeah?"

"If you ever need to drink and ya don't wanna wait for some pills or water or whatever... I d-don't mind i-if you... well, y'know..." he trailed off, getting nervous for some reason he couldn't quite figure out.

"...Are you offering your blood because you feel guilty about ruining my life yet again?"

Ranma stayed silent.

"...Thanks, Saotome. G'night."

"G'night, Ryoga."

...

"Maaaan, someone turn the sun down! It's too bright!" Ranma whined, covering his eyes as he approached the group with Ryoga at his side, squinting as well.

Mr. Cross just laughed and handed them a pair of cheap sunglasses. "You're just sensitive to sunlight thanks to your new condition, but you'll get used to it. The more you drink, the less it'll sting."

"But I just drank a full glass of that stuff!" Ranma complained. "Y'know how annoying it is to find some water just so I can drink up, then find some hot water to change back?"

"Oh stop your complaining, Ranma," Akane said, threatening him with a bottle of water. "You don't hear Kaname complaining, do you?"

Kaname simply chuckled at Ranma's flailing to try and deflect Akane's water bottle, only to end up tripping backwards into a fountain and changing anyway.

"It's _not_ funny!" Ranma cried, making Ryoga, Akane, and Yuki join in with the laughter at the adorably pouting ginger.

"See, now you don't have to worry! You can drink all you want!" Ryoga offered, showing a little fang poking over his lip as he grinned.

"Hmph! Whatever!" Ranma coughed, crossing her arms and turning away from the group. '_It's nice to see Ryoga's back in a good mood though_,' she thought to herself.

"Sorry for making you trip, Ranma," Akane said, rubbing the back of her head. "Here's your sunglasses."

Ranma took them with a thanks but realized her eyes didn't hurt nearly as bad now. She could actually tolerate the sunlight with hardly any squinting. "Huh, guess it's just really bad when I'm a guy. Well that sucks," she realized aloud.

"Well then, shall we? There's a lot to show you," Mr. Cross said, ready to guide the party along.

Together, the group wandered the campus, taking in the sights and sounds. Few students were milling about since the school was on a week-long vacation. The relaxation was almost over however, as classes were set to start up again the day after next. During this time, the new students would have to get acquainted with their dorms, which was partially why they eventually found themselves at the gate to the moon dormatory, where they met with the grisly guard sitting at his post.

"Oh, headmaster!" he called, seeing them arrive. Kaien responded with a simple wave and a smile as they approached. "Good to see you! New night class students, I take it? And Lord Kaname, how good it is to see you again." The man nodded his head respectfully, having noticed who he was in the presence of.

"Likewise. You're looking well," Kaname said with a feigned interest.

"Mr. Arakawa, I'd like to introduce you to some new students," Kaien began, motioning to the three new kids who were oddly enough, standing in a row arranged by height. "First we have Ryoga Hibiki of the night class, Akane Tendo of the day class, and finally, Ranma Saotome of the night class."

"Hey, I thought we agreed I'd be joining the day class with Akane!" Ranma cried.

"Oh, right, we never discussed that last night, did we?" Mr. Cross said to a confused audience in the grisly gatekeeper. He had no idea about Ranma's curse, afterall. "Since you'll be staying in the moon dormatory regardless of class, perhaps we should explain things to Mr. Arakawa? You wouldn't want him to keep you from getting to bed, afterall."

"Whaddare you on about, Cross? You know no day students can come in here without special permission, let alone _live_ here! You're just askin' for an accident!" Arakawa argued.

"May we have a glass of water, please?" Mr. Cross asked with an innocent smile.

Arakawa quirked a brow, but turned around to grab a cup from his desk and fill it from a large bottle he kept on hand.

Ranma just sighed. She loved being the center of attention when it came to her skills (or even her looks, though she'd hardly admit that), she didn't like being put on the spot as a circus animal.

Thanking the guardsman, Kaien took the mug and handed it to Kaname. "Would you do the honors?"

"...Sure." Kaname reached out towards the mug and with one gentle touch, it was suddenly steaming.

"Woah, how'd you do that?" Akane asked in awe.

Kaname cooly ran his hand through his hair. "Heh, a simple matter. Vampires, that is, _whole_ vampires, have some sort of natural powers given to them at birth. Being a pure-blood, my lineage is blessed with several different abilities, though there are some that I'd rather not use."

"Huh? Why's that?" Akane asked.

"Because it would abuse the trust of those around me," he said darkly. He clearly didn't like to use his powers unless they were necessary. Akane picked up on this sudden mood change and decided to let it go for now. She'd find out more later.

"Mr. Arakawa, observe," Mr. Cross announced, taking the mug and giving it a swift toss in the direction of the petite ginger. In the blink of an eye, she was replaced by a taller boy, though still the shortest boy in the group.

"Well, I'll be!" Arakawa exclaimed, taken aback. "What sorta magic is this? Is her vampire power to change sexes or somethin'?!"

"No, it's a _curse_!" Ranma shouted through grit teeth. "I had it long before I was a vampire!"

"How very strange! I take it you're human in one of these forms and that's why you'll be staying here despite being in both classes, then?" he speculated.

"Exactly right, my friend!" Kaien announced with inappropriate cheer. "For the time being, Ranma here will be attending the day class as a normal human student, and the night class as a vampire to learn more about the vampire world. Ranma will be sharing a room with Ryoga here, so please let him through regardless which form he's in."

"Y'sure about that, Cross? Sure she's a guy half the time, but havin' a guy and a girl share a room?" Arakawa asked.

Ranma's face was red with embarrassed rage. "I'm a _GUY_, damnit! A GUY!"

The group only stifled a chuckle at Ranma's discomfort, while Arakawa rubbed the back of his head, trying to comprehend all this weirdness.

"Well I guess you folk best be on your way, then," he said, pressing a switch that started opening the large swinging gates. "Remember, most everyone's asleep at this hour, so be quiet, eh?"

"Of course, of course. Before we continue, might I get another glass of water?" Kaien asked with that innocent smile of his.

Ranma was practically fuming with his arms crossed.

Once again, the mug was filled, and once again, a completely soaked ginger appeared.

"Why? Just, why?" Ranma pleaded at the end of her wits.

"Because this is the vampire dorm and you should be introduced as such. To be introduced as a human staying here would cause far too much alarm."

"He's got a point, Ranma," Ryoga said. "You might have trouble getting in and out as a guy anyway, just because of the students."

"Why does my life have to be so complicated?" she asked, mostly to herself. "I can't even be myself! This back and forth is almost worse than having my curse locked."

"Ranma, you can't be serious!" Akane nearly shouted in surprise at what she was hearing. "You hate your curse! You'd really go through that again just to avoid a little inconvenience?"

"_This_ is a 'little inconvenience' to you?" Ranma replied with a scowl. She was about to go off on Akane, but was stopped when Ryoga put a firm hand on her small shoulder.

"Hey, calm down. Yeah it sucks but this is just what we have to do. You'll get used to it," he said, trying to calm her down.

She looked up at him with her sad lavender eyes and then dropped them to the ground and quietly said, "I guess if anyone asks, I can just say I'm my own brother or somethin'..."

"There you go, that's the spirit!" Kaien exlclaimed with that completely inappropriate cheer he loved to pepper into every conversation. "Now let's go and see you to your room! Akane, if you ever want to visit your friends, be sure to check in with Mr. Arakawa here first so he can page them for you."

"Ok, I will. Thank you," she said with a nod.

Together, the odd group left down the stone path towards the dorm building proper, and Mr. Arakawa dug in his drawer for some aspirin.

...

"Well it sure beats sleeping in a tent," Ryoga commented at the sight of his and Ranma's new room. It was simple yet large, with two beds, two desks, two dressers, and even a coffee table with a couple of chairs in front of a large glass window. There was even a balcony!

"This is more like a high-class hotel than a dorm, Mr. Cross," Akane said.

Mr. Cross seemed very pleased with the praise. "We do what we can here. Oh, and I'll have you know, room service will be in every Monday while you're in class to drop off fresh towels and bath supplies, as well as a fresh tin of blood tablets for each of you."

"It's like a pillow mint," Ranma said under her breath, taking note of their travel packs already leaning against one of the beds. Someone must have dropped them off while they were eating breakfast, she surmised.

"So, who's the fresh blood? ...And why's a day class girl here, headmaster?"

The group turned back towards the open door to find a trio of well-dressed night class students come to see what the fuss was about. It wasn't every day there were new night class students, let alone a day class trespasser. Nobody could out-run Arakawa.

"Ah, Ichijo! Great timing!" the headmaster called, throwing his arms out as he walked towards the group. "I'd like you to meet some new students of ours. The tall one is Ryoga Hibiki and the one with the dark red hair is Ranma Saotome, and this is their friend from the day class, Akane Tendo." As they were introduced, the group shyly gave out a small wave to group at the door.

"Kids, I'd like you to meet the vice president of the night class, Takuma Ichijo." As he said the name, the tall blonde boy in the group gave a slight bow. "And with him are Senri Shiki and Rima Touya." They each respectively gave a greeting.

Senri, the other boy in the group, stepped forward to look over the newcomers. "So, you two are gonna be rooming together? Are you married or somethin'?" he innocently asked.

"WHAT?!" exclaimed both Ranma and Ryoga at the same moment, both flush in the face.

"No way in hell I'd marry a macho chick like this! She's far too violent for my tastes," Ryoga said with a playful smirk, throwing some friendly shade at his rival and taking advange of her discomfort at being thought of as a girl.

"Yeah and there's no way I'd ever marry some pig-headed... PIG like you!" Ranma shot back with daggers in her eyes.

Now they were both staring daggers at each other and damn near growling like dogs about to fight.

Mr. Cross couldn't help but laugh. "No, no, nothing like that. There are some special circumstances surrounding these two so I thought it best to keep them together. Plus, Ranma's, ah, _brother_ should be drifting in and out of this room as well. He'll be in the day class."

"Did Kaname approve of this? You know we can't have students wandering around in here," Ichijo questioned, but he was answered by a hand on his shoulder.

"It's for the best," Kaname said in a tone that demanded an end to all further questioning from the group. "It's a delicate situation."

"Ah, Kaname, thank you for rejoining us!" Mr. Cross said. Kaname had broken off from the group when they entered the dorm and left for his own room for some reason, but now, it seems whatever he wanted to attend to was taken care of.

"Well everyone, it's about time for lunch," Kaien said, checking his watch. "Shall we all go together? We can go to a nice place in town, my treat. You four are welcome to join us," he offered, motioning towards the group of vampires standing in the doorway.

The girl, Rima, who'd been snacking on some pocky this whole time lit up at the offer, but her hopes for a free meal were soon squashed by Kaname.

"Thank you, but I'm afraid we have other business to attend to. All of us," he said, looking over the group who simply nodded in understanding.

"Ah, well, that's a shame. Shall we, then? After lunch, we'll head to the sun dormatory and get you situated with your new roommate, Akane," Mr. Cross said with a smile.

The group said their goodbyes and left for the main doors down on the lower floor, followed by the group of night class students to see them off. After waiting in silence for a moment after the doors had closed with their loud echoing thud, Kaname finally spoke up.

"Ichijo, would you please gather everyone still here and have them meet in the foyer? I have some ground rules to tell you all about our new students and that girl's... brother."

"Sure, but what was their deal? They don't smell like pure-bloods or even born vampires, but they don't smell like turned humans either. What gives, Lord Kaname?" Senri asked, to nods of agreement from the others. Apparently they all had noticed the same thing.

"I'll explain once everyone is gathered so I'll only have to say this once," said Kaname.

And thirty minutes later, he did. Everyone gathered shared gasps at this new revelation that someone could smell like a vampire despite being a turned human. Something strange was definitely going on with the newcomers and they'd need every resource they could offer to find out what. Kaname explained everything about the rogue pure-blood who hunted Ranma down, to how they ended up at the academy. He conveniently left out any information about jusenkyo curses.

"What matters most is finding whoever sired them so they can prevent themselves from dropping to Level E's. I'd like you all to ask your friends and family for any information we can to try and hunt this woman down," Kaname asked of the large group.

"It's not like you to go so far out of your way to help turned humans, Lord Kaname," one person commented.

"I'm getting involved because their blood is unique and we will never get any answers if they devolve into monsters. Plus, I suppose, it's the nice thing to do," he said with a half-smile, showing that even someone as stoic as him can have a little personality. "On top of that, we can't have an unknown pure-blood hunting humans like this. It sets a dangerous precedent, and would serve to ruin any and all progress we've made towards diplomacy and a peaceful coexistence with the human world. We all took the pledge of pacifism and I have a feeling this woman will come after Ranma again."

The group nodded in understanding and began talking amongst themselves as Kaname retired to his chambers.

...

"Class, I'd like to introduce you to some new students joining us today, Akane Tendo and Ranma Saotome."

The two new students, wearing matching black uniforms, bowed to the class at the teacher's behest before taking their seats.

Once they were sat, Akane quietly asked Ranma, "Hey, did you remember to take your... _medicine_ before coming over here?"

Ranma scowled and turned away from her. "Yeah, yeah, 'course I did."

And things were fine for a couple of hours. The class work was a bit more difficult than they were used to, but for such an elite and rich school, it only made sense that they'd have a higher standard of learning, at least to Akane. Ranma, however, kept complaining that it was just one more hurdle in his crappy life.

"You're starting to sound like Ryoga," Akane said with a laugh as she opened her lunch box. It was nice of the dorm to provide bentos for everyone.

"Don't even compare me to that lucky pig! He gets to sleep all day while I have to go to class _twice_!" he complained, moving even further under the shade of the tree they were eating their lunch beneath. Even though he was in the shade, he still felt agitated by how bright it was.

"Speaking of, are you prepared for tonight? ...Are you going to wear the uniform? They're pretty strict on it here," Akane asked. Although Ranma made it to the day class in the school's uniform, she was worried that he'd chicken out of wearing the girl's uniform and just go to class wearing whatever he wanted.

Ranma just sighed. "Do ya have to remind me? With how short that skirt is, I can't even wear boxers with that stupid uniform!" he quietly hissed with a blush, making Akane laugh.

"Oh, boo hoo. It's just underwear. You'll get used to it," she said, taking another bite.

"That's unexpected coming from you, 'Kane. I thought for sure you'd call me a pervert for even suggesting that," Ranma said with surprise, momentarily forgetting how thirsty he was getting.

"Shikata ga nai. In this situation, it can't be helped. If you weren't being forced into it by circumstance, that'd be a different story," she said, sipping her tea from a cup.

Ranma saw the cup and remembered he was starting to get thirsty. Really thirsty. So much so that his leg had been twitching the whole time they'd been sitting under the shade. He reached into his bag and pulled out his tin of tablets and a bottle of water.

"Hey, 'Kane? Mind saving some of that tea for me?" he said, motioning to her thermos.

Akane tilted her head in curiosity for a moment before remembering that Ranma needed to change to drink. She handed him the thermos. "Yeah, help yourself, just don't use it all, k?"

"Thanks Akane. I'll be right back."

Ranma took the thermos and stole away to a private stall in the nearest bathroom where he could take care of business. This was going to prove to be routine for him.

"Thanks," he said, returning his damp self to his spot beneath the tree a few minutes later.

"Feeling better now?" Akane asked.

"Yeah, much. I wasn't sure how much long I could put it off," Ranma said with a sigh of relief.

The next time he'd have to change and drink happened to be later that evening, about an hour before the class changeover began. Returning to his dorm room and past the questioning looks from the night class students milling about, he immediately walked into the bathroom to splash himself and fill a glass with water.

As she casually sipped her glass of fake blood, she wandered back into the main room to find that Ryoga was still fast asleep.

"Oy," she called.

No response.

"Time to get up, P-chan!" she called, tossing the remains of her glass onto the poor sleeping boy and waking him up in a start with angry squeels.

Ranma shrugged at his piggy anger. "Sorry man, you're running out of time to get ready."

Ranma walked off to her own wardrobe and pulled out the thing she was dreading most about this stupid night class nonsense: the girl's uniform. The night class uniforms were completely identical to the day class, except the night class' uniforms were white. Ranma thought on this intentional yin and yang design choice as she turned around and laid the uniform out on her bed.

Something strange caught her eye coming from Ryoga's bed in her peripheral vision and she looked up to find him desparately licking away at his soaked bedding, still in his piglet form.

Ranma sighed and walked over to him and picked him up, kicking and squeeling, and carried him off to the bathroom where she unceremoniously tossed him into the tub and cranked the hot water. She immediately turned around to prep another glass of artificial blood for him and when she turned around to hand it to him, a very naked and very scalded Ryoga hungrily stole the glass from her hand and chugged it down in seconds flat.

Catching his breath and lowering the glass, he met Ranma's playfully innocent eyes with a deadly glare. "I hate you, Saotome."

"Jeez, you're welcome," she said with a laugh. As she started to walk back towards the main room, she called back to him, "Go ahead and shower while I change. And you'd better not peep or I'll tell Akane and you'll never live it down."

That was all the threat she needed to secure her privacy.

The blood drained from Ryoga's face as he realized just how hurtful it'd be to have Akane think of him as a pervert. Sure, he may be over her by now, but he'd still never be able to forgive himself if Akane looked at him with eyes of hatred. He turned from the ginger girl and slammed the door shut.

Ranma just laughed. At least by messing with Ryoga, she could distract herself a bit from the horror she was about to endure.

...

Minutes later, Ryoga left the bathroom with a towel around his waist and froze at what sat before him.

There was a beautiful girl with dark red hair sitting on the edge of a bed, wearing a perfectly fitted white uniform with gothic frills coming from a thin petticoat underneath her skirt and brown boots covering her ankles. She had her long hair down and was in the process of re-tying her braid.

She worked in silence for a moment before realizing Ryoga was out of the bathroom, and what's more, he was staring at her.

She blushed seeing his wide green eyes looking her over and with her hands still up in her hair, she blurted out, "H-hey, knock it off! You're creeping me out!"

Ryoga finally snapped out of it. "Oh! Sorry!" he said, whipping around to face his own wardrobe. "That, ah, the uniform really... suits you. The white really makes your hair stand out," he said as he dressed, unable to look in her direction.

For her part, she blushed harder. She took pride in her appearance, but didn't like being praised by someone she knew. It was alright if she was scamming some street vendor for free food, but from someone who knew she was really a guy? She didn't know how to accept a compliment to her female form. A genuine one, anyway.

"Just... UGGH, I'm gonna wait outside. Hurry up and get ready!" she said, storming off. In her rush to get away from him, she gave up on tying the braid and just let her hair hang loose. '_Stupid distracting pig, why'd he have to go and say somethin' like that?_' she thought to herself.

...

"Class, these are the new students who will be joining us from now on. Please welcome Ryoga Hibiki and Ranma Saotome."

The two students bowed to the class from the front, with Ranma grimacing at having to do it twice in one day.

"Ranma Saotome, you say?" one student spoke up from the crowd. "I thought that was your brother's name, the one in the day class."

Ranma froze but she had to think fast. "I, uh, well, y'see, we're twins! Yeah, twins, so our parents gave us the same name but spelled differently. He writes it as 'wild horse' and I write it as 'orchid'." She hated how good she was at coming up with complete bullshit in the moment. "Mom likes to call me 'Ranko' though so you guys can call me what you want, I don't mind."

Ranma hated that she had to lie like this, but it wasn't entirely a lie. Even after Ranma's mother learned the truth about the curse, she'd still be in the habit of calling her 'Ranko' when she was in her girl form. Ranma thought that maybe it just made it easier to accept the curse, to try and think of her as two different people, and if it kept her from enacting the seppuku contract, she'd just have to go along with it. Better to have a mom who doesn't quite see you for who you are than to have a mom that's actively trying to kill you, she thought.

"Very well, take your seats, we have a lot to go over today on the subject of human integration history," the teacher said.

Both Ranma and Ryoga nodded and took two seats next to each other in the stadium-style classroom. The rows of seats reminded her of how a college lecture hall looks in the movies. One thing that caught both of their attention was the fact that every student had a glass of artificial blood sitting in front of them, and some were just casually sipping away.

Ranma and Ryoga shared a look and grinned, each reaching into their bags, pulling out water bottles, and popping in a tablet each.

This was going to be a lot more relaxing than the day class, even if she had to dress up for it.

...

Everything was going very well until finally a break time arrived and the students all stood up and began to stretch or walk over to their friends to chat. Some were staring at the newcomers, but wouldn't dare approach them for whatever reason.

One girl did though, and held out a stick of pocky to share.

"Pocky, Ran_ko_?" Rima offered through her permanently half-lidded eyes.

'_Why'd she have to go and emphasize that girly suffix for?_' Ranma thought. "Sure, thanks. Rima, right?"

The girl nodded and sat down on the desk in the tier below where Ranma and Ryoga sat, turned to face them.

"I'm curious, how's that work that your brother's a human in the day class, but you're here with us? You're definitely a vampire but your blood doesn't smell like a convert," she asked pointedly.

"I... we don't know," Ranma said, tilting her head down and breaking eye contact. "That Kaname guy and the headmaster said they're gonna help us figure that out, though."

"I see," she said, taking another bite and turning her attention to Ryoga. "And what about you? Lord Kaname said you were bit too, but your blood smells almost as clean as a pure-blood's. Do you have vampire parents or something?"

Ryoga tried hard not to scowl at this girl who was clearly just curious and not asking this to mess with him. "That's the second time someone said something like that. If that were try, how come I've never had to drink this stuff until now?"

"I don't know. Maybe your vampire nature got locked somehow and being bit unlocked it? I don't know if that can happen but maybe it's something like that. I'd say ask your parents to be sure," Rima said.

Now it was Ryoga's turn to break eye contact and stare at the wood before him. He had no way of getting ahold of his parents, and he had no idea how they would take all this news. They'd left a letter at the house explaining the situation in full, but who knows how they'll take it? Would they be scared of him? Would they be ashamed? Maybe it was best that he just disappeared, never to be seen again, so as to not cause them heartache.

Once again, Ryoga's train of thought made his depression ki manifest around him, startling Rima and the few other students who noticed it.

Ranma immediately went into damage control mode. She placed a hand over his and squeezed, trying to snap him out of it. "Hey, buddy, come back to me. It'll be fine. We left that letter, right?" she offered.

"And who knows how they'll take it, or if they'll even see it," Ryoga spat, still not making eye contact with either of the girls.

Ranma squeezed harder. "They're your parents, they'll love you no matter what. Heh, just look at what happened with me! I'm living breathing proof that parents can get over the dumb stuff that happens to us!"

This left Rima confused, but it somehow got through to Ryoga. His ki faded away and he lifted his head to meet Ranma's worried eyes. "I guess you're right. My parents are nowhere near as messed up as yours," he said with a light chuckle.

"Yeah, no kidding!" Ranma laughed, glad to see it worked and completely unaware that she still had her hand on his. "And I've met your parents a few times, remember? Back in junior high when I walked you home? There's no way they'd ever hate you for this. For following me to China, maybe, but not for this."

Rima couldn't help but grin. "You two are absolutely adorable, have you really been dating since junior high?"

"WHAT?!" they yelled in unison, Ranma finally noticing her hand and whipping it away with lightning speed, both of them completely red in the face.

"We—we're not—_NO!_" Ranma cried.

"Never ever ever, not ever!" Ryoga cried too, shaking his head vigorously from side to side.

Rima just laughed and laughed, clashing hard with her usually disinterested and indifferent demeanor. "Well, it was nice meeting you. Class is about to start again. If you ever want to hang out, just let me know."

She paused, looking Ranma over again. "And Ranko, have you ever thought about modeling? You certainly have the build for it and I can get you in touch with someone..."

"Huh? Modeling?" Ranma asked in surprise. Sure, she's heard some pervy guys at school say that she should model, but coming from a girl like Rima, she seemed pretty serious. Did she really have the looks to model? She knew she was good looking as a girl, but was she _that_ good looking? "Uh, thanks, I'll... keep that in mind."

With that, Rima gave a small wave and went back towards Senri to spend the rest of lunch with her friend.

The two watched as she went off and started talking with her friend, who casually took a stick of pocky from her without even asking. They both seemed to share that indifferent look about them, yet they seemed so comfortable by each others' side.

"Hey, Ryoga," Ranma whispered. "Do ya think they're a couple or something? They're so familiar with each other."

Ryoga grimaced at his small companion. "Maybe, I don't know. I don't care about girly relationship gossip, Ran_ko_."

Ranma flushed again and scowled. "It's not- I'm not gossiping, I was just curious! Oh, forget it!" She plopped back down in her seat, crossing her arms and looking away.

At least the first full day of classes was nearly over.

...

**A/N: **Sorry that this one doesn't seem to have a lot of overall plot progress. I'm still trying to figure out how to get to step C on the path from A-D, if that makes sense. This one may have a few awkward phrasings here and there. It's a first draft, but I wanted to get it posted. I'll fix it sometime in the future.

One thing I wanted to point out that I'm not sure a lot of people know is that 'ko' as part of a name is a feminine suffix. For example, Ran is a prefix type name that mostly used by girls in modern Japan, but it's still technically androgynous. Ranma, while mostly used by guys, is also technically androgynous thanks to the alternate meaning from the spelling. It's not commonly used for girls anymore, as far as I know. 'ko', however, can be used as a suffix like 'chan' in certain instances, but never together with it. Some names, like Ranko, have it built in. It means something like beautiful. To say 'Ranko-chan' would be a bit awkward and it's probably improper, but if a girl's name is just Ran, her friends or family might call her Ranko instead of Ran-chan. This is more or less why canon Ranma chooses Ranko as his alias when he first meets his mother. It's his name, but overtly feminine.

Anyway, sorry for the lesson, I'm very tired (as always) and tend to ramble. I just wanted to point that out to the community since I see 'Ranko-chan' used a lot and it always sounds weird to me.

Until next time, cheers!


	4. Chapter 4: Aria of Sorrow

Ch4 – Aria of Sorrow

* * *

"And with that, class, I'd like you all to put away your math books and pull out your English texts," the teacher projected across the lecture hall. The sound of books shuffling and students chatting filled the auditorium, but there was one noise in particular that was really starting to tick Akane off.

Ranma had spent the last thirty minutes incessantly clicking a pen. _Click click click click click_, non-stop, while his leg bounced.

"Would you knock that off already? It's really getting on my nerves!" Akane demanded, turning to her agitated fiance.

"What's it to you, huh?" Ranma shot back with an irritated scowl.

"What's it to me? I'm the one who has to listen to you clicking away! What's the matter with you? If you gotta go to the restroom, just ask already!" Akane said, slamming her English book on the long shared desk in front of her.

"The bathroom...?" Ranma began in confusion but then it dawned on him and a smile finally broke his face. "The bathroom! Of course! HEY, TEACH!" he yelled from his place up in the auditorium.

The teacher frowned, but turned his way anyway. "Yes? What is it, Saotome?"

"I gotta go to the bathroom!" he yelled down.

"Fine, just stop yelling across my classroom! Be back in five minutes," he allowed.

Ranma jumped over the shared desk and landed two rows below at the open walkway, and bolted for the door. As he pulled the door open, Akane noticed a glint of light reflecting off what had to be his tin of blood tablets gripped tightly in his hand.

When he returned a moment later with damp hair, he was far more relaxed. He casually made his way back to his seat and dug around for his own textbook.

"Really, Ranma? I thought you knew by now to drink before you came to class," Akane whispered. She knew that he knew better. They'd been at this school just over a week and he always seemed to wait until the last possible moment to take care of it, and here he was forgetting to take some with breakfast!

"For your information Akane, I _did _have some earlier," he shot back with a smug glare. "Just seems like I need to do it more often. Maybe I should start taking two tablets' worth..." he wondered.

"Really? You have cravings after just a couple hours now?" Akane asked in surprise. "What about Ryoga? Him too?"

"Nah, that lucky jerk. He has half a glass when he gets up, sips one throughout class, and just has a little before bed. Meanwhile, I gotta do this like five times in the day and twice at night. I'm burning through these stupid pills," Ranma said. There was a subtle tone of hurt in his voice, but not so subtle that Akane couldn't catch it.

The stress of it all must be really getting to him, she realized.

"A-_hem_, would you mind finishing that conversation when I'm not on the clock?" the teacher called to Ranma and Akane, glaring over the rim of his squared glasses.

"S-sorry, Miyamoto-sensei!" Akane apologized. It wasn't like her to get scolded by a teacher. She was nearly a straight-A student!

Ranma just huffed and cracked his book open, totally willing to focus on some foreign language he barely knew from his travels. That way, he could put his personal troubles out of his mind, if only for a little while.

* * *

Two hours later, the lunch bell finally rang and both Akane and Ranma were glad to get out of that stuffy classroom. As they made the way to their tree, they couldn't help but notice the leaves all over the ground.

"I guess the season's finally catching up to us," Akane said. "We won't be able to have lunch outside for much longer."

"Yeah, I guess it's getting a bit chilly," Ranma commented, whipping his sunglassed out of his pocket and casually sliding them on. "At least the sun's there to keep us warm."

"For now," Akane finished, plopping down on the ground with little grace.

Ranma did the same, and they both cracked into their prepared meals.

"Oh, by the way Ranma, I meant to tell you yesterday but I got a letter from Kasumi. Apparently Ryoga's mother is home. She said she's going to help her stick around until we can all make a trip home. She really misses Ryoga," Akane said in between bites.

"Yeah I bet, with how little they see each other," Ranma replied. "I'll let him know, though. When do you think we'll be able to go home? Ever?"

"Well for Christmas a New Years, for sure," Akane assumed. Neither of them really knew for sure.

As they quietly thought about their next trip home, a light voice rang out from above their heads.

"Mind if I join you today?"

They looked up to find none other than Yuki Cross, the headmaster's daughter.

"Sure, not at all!" Akane said, without even asking for Ranma's opinion. He didn't mind, he just hardly knew the girl so he had nothing to talk about with her.

"Thanks! So how are you guys doing?" she asked as she sat down and began her own meal. "I haven't seen you guys since the night you arrived, so I wanted to make sure everything's going ok."

Ranma was a little surprised that she would even care, but then he remembered that she was on the school's disciplinary committee. He saw her every night at the class changeover as he walked to class with the other night class students. She was always standing there, holding back the crowds of fans. What were those girls so obsessed with, anyway? Sure some of the guys dressed nice and all, but it's not like they're movie stars or anything.

"Things are going great for me. My roommate's really nice and we help each other with our homework. I just wish I got to see Ranma and Ryoga more," Akane answered with a sigh. "What about you, Ranma?"

"How's the double life treating you? It's not too much strain on you, is it?" Yuki asked with genuine concern.

Ranma sighed. "It sucks, but I'm gettin' by I guess. So's Ryoga. He's actually doin' better than me. I keep getting these damn cravings and I hardly get any sleep and-" he stopped himself before he could unload all of his problems onto this innocent bystander. "Speaking of, it's about time for another drink."

He slowly got up and grabbed a water bottle out of his bag.

"What, so soon?" Akane asked. She was starting to get concerned by this. He was acting almost like a drug addict over this stuff.

"Yeah, well, better safe than sorry. I'll be back in a couple minutes."

And he was off, walking towards the private bathrooms far from the tree they were sitting at. Noticing nobody around, he sighed and poured a little of the water over his head to trigger the change. As she kept walking towards the nearest source of hot water, she fished in her pocket for the tin of artificial blood tablets when she heard a shrill scream echo out over the field.

She froze in her tracks and looked in the direction the scream had come from. She was near the school's perimeter so she was sure it came from the other side of the wall. Faintly, on the crisp autumn wind, she smelled it: the distinct scent of fresh blood.

She dropped her bottle and ran straight for the wall, taking a small crouch to launch her eight feet high to clear the structure. Past the trees and through the thick foliage she came across a grisly scene.

A girl about her age was laying there on the ground, unconscious. She wore casual clothes and clearly didn't attend the school. But what Ranma cared most about was the temptation oozing out of the girl's neck at an alarming rate.

Ranma wanted to look around, look for any sign of her attacker, but couldn't. Her body was locked on to the crimson gold and her eyes just wouldn't look away.

Slowly, she approached, crouched down, and lifted the girl up on her knee.

The blood wasn't stopping.

Ranma took a deep breath, taking the scent in. She held it for a moment, savoring the rich aroma. Fresh blood was so much more intoxicating and aluring than the stupid bland tablets she had in her pocket. They just couldn't compare. Slowly, she leaned down, and gently dragged her tongue up the girl's slender neck.

The pleasure she felt at the taste of real blood, fresh at that, was enough to overcome her senses entirely.

Her eyes began to glow a demonic red and her fangs came to bear.

She was operating on pure instinct now.

She inched closer, ready to satisfy her desires, when another scream pulled her out of her trance.

She looked up to find that the scream came from Akane, who looked absolutely terrifyed at what she was seeing. Yuki stood next to her, brandishing a long silver pole as a weapon, ready to defend herself.

"Ranma, how could you?!" Akane cried.

"Huh?" Ranma said, perplexed. She looked down to the weight in her arms and realized what Akane and Yuki must have thought, seeing her in a position like this. "I-I found her like this, honest!"

"Her blood is still on your lips, Ranma!" Akane screamed, tears threatening to release from her eyes. She didn't want to believe that Ranma would stoop so low in her cravings as to actually bite someone, but she couldn't deny what she was seeing in front of her.

"She was already bit, honest!" Ranma cried again.

"It's true, she was. We picked up the scent and ran over as soon as we could."

"Kaname!" Yuki gasped.

Standing on the other side of Ranma, Kaname stood in his white uniform, with Ichijo trying to catch his breath from running over so quickly.

"Good afternoon, Yuki," Kaname said with a small smile. "I was just on my way to discuss something with your father when I smelled blood out here. It seems Ranma was the first one to discover the victim."

"Yeah, I was! I didn't attack her, I swear!" Ranma defended, starting to worry about what could happen to her if she was found guilty.

"Calm down, calm down, I believe you," Kaname said in his soothing voice. This did little to relax Akane but gave Ranma a sigh of relief. "Did you happen to see anything, though?"

Ranma looked away, ashamed. "I... couldn't. The second I saw her and the blood, it was like my body was moving on its own. I just... came up to her... and..." she trailed off. She didn't want to finish the sentence.

"Understandable. You're still freshly turned and have yet to drink from a living person, correct?" Kaname asked.

Ranma nodded.

"Lord Kaname, what do you make of this? To happen so close to the school, this was no accident. Someone was sending a message," Ichijo realized aloud.

"Really? Are you sure it wasn't one of the night class students?" Akane asked.

Kaname turned to face her. "I'm positive. We've all taken an oath of pacifism and everyone takes that very seriously."

"Why's that?" she continued, but it was Yuki who answered.

"Because they're afraid of him."

Kaname sighed. It wasn't wrong, but he didn't like to be thought of as some authority figure striking fear to maintain order. "Ichijo, take the girl to the infirmary as fast as you can. The rest of you should join me to see the headmaster."

The three girls nodded and Ranma gently handed the poor victim off to Ichijo, who threw her over his shoulder and ran off towards the gates.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Ichijo arrived back at the headmaster's manor to find the group waiting at tables in the foyer.

"I take it he's not here?" he asked, approaching Kaname to find a seat of his own.

Kaname nodded.

Taking his seat, Ichijo looked over the group before him. Kaname was stoic but nice as always, Yuki was nervously trying to avoid looking at Kaname, and Akane sat on the opposite side of Yuki as Ranma did, clearly scared of being next to her old 'friend'. Ranma, for her part, looked rather silly, moping while wearing an oversized boy's day class uniform.

"I have to say, Saotome, the night class uniform suits you a lot better than that," Ichijo said with a playful smile, hoping to brighten the mood a bit.

Ranma gaped at him and started to blush. "This is the uniform I'm supposed ta wear!" She blurted out, without considering her audience, but when Ichijo just laughed, she realized he should have been confused by the attire and why she was there to begin with. "...you know about the curse, don't you?" she asked.

Everyone looked at Kaname, with Ranma glaring.

Kaname shrugged and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry Ranma, but as vice president of the moon dorm, Ichijo needs to know everything that goes on around here. It's for everyone's own safety. I promise, I haven't told anyone else."

"Hmmf, not like I care who ya tell anyway," she said with a huff, looking away.

A sound rang out over the foyer of the large wood doors opening and everyone looked to see Kaien Cross enter the hall carrying some grocery bags.

"Well, hello everyone!" he greeted with surprise. "Shouldn't you three be in class?" he asked, looking over the group of girls, before turning to Ichijo and seeing the blood stain that stood clear and bright on his white uniform. His tone suddenly turned serious. "What's happened?"

* * *

"This is very serious, Ranma. If it wasn't for Akane, you could have killed that poor girl," Kaien said, pacing back and forth behind his large wooden desk.

The girl in question was fuming.

She jumped out of her seat and yelled, "I didn't even do anything! All I did was lick up some blood that was runnin' down her neck, I didn't actually _bite_ her!"

"But you almost did, and after being attacked by someone else, there's no telling how close to death she came. When a person is drained of too much blood by a vampire, their very life essence is on the line. Sometimes, not even a body remains."

The group looked on solemly at Kaien's words, with Akane throwing a glance at Kaname as if to ask if it were true, which he responded to with a nod.

This sent chills down her spine. Ranma came seriously close to becoming a murderer. In her mind, Saffron was a special case, but this girl? This was an innocent victim of circumstance. Something Ranma could never live with herself over if she had killed her.

She lowered her head and let her eyes fall down to the carpet, staring at nothing at all as she quietly spoke.

"I... wouldn't have done it. No way no how. It goes against my code as a martial artist: I can't attack the weak." She looked up again with determination in her eyes. "I _will_ not let that happen!"

Kaien nodded. "See that you don't. If you are put in a position like that again, who knows what would happen? For your own safety and the safety of others, I think it would be best for you to permanently transfer to the night class to better learn how to control yourself."

"WHAT?!" Ranma and Akane shouted together at the same time.

"No way in hell! I'm not giving up my only chance to be a guy!"

"If you do that, I won't see him at all anymore!"

"I'm sorry, but," he began, but he was cut off by none other than Yuki.

"Please don't do that. Give him another chance. As a member of the disciplinary committee, this is partially my fault. Please, for me, father?" she pleaded with her bright innocent eyes.

Naturally, Kaien's stern exterior melted like butter and he smiled so wide you'd think is face would break.

"'F-Father'? Yuki actually called me Father!" he sang. "Anything for my sweet and wonderful daughter~!"

Akane and Ranma shared a look of utter disbelief. This guy was nuts.

"Very well! Because my Yuki asked so nicely, I'll give you one more shot, Ranma, and I do mean ONE!" he declared, losing his jovial demeaner and regaining his stern disposition partway through his sentence. "Even if you don't bite someone, if you even come _close_ to it, you will be suspended and permanently put with the night class. Is that understood?"

Ranma gulped and nodded. "Yes, headmaster."

With that, the meeting was over and the girls left the office. Kaname and Ichijo had stayed in the office to discuss whatever it was they had to. Ranma, for her part, just felt defeated, but Akane put a hand on the smaller girl's shoulder to try and cheer her up.

"It'll be ok Ranma, we just have to be more careful, right?" she offered.

Ranma sighed heavily. "I guess. Seems like from the start he's been wanting me to switch. That guy's a pain in the ass. Er, sorry Yuki. I know he's your dad and all."

Yuki just smiled and gave a little wave of deflection. "No, no, it's alright, I'm not offended or anything. He can be at times. I'm glad I was able to help at least, but I really should get back to my duties. I'll see you guys later, ok? Be safe."

"Yeah, you too," Ranma said. "And hey- thank you. I really appreciate you doing that," she added.

Akane nodded in agreement. "You're a lifesaver, Yuki."

"Oh, it's no problem at all!" Yuki said with a smile. "Say, we should plan to meet up on our free day this weekend. We could all use a little relaxation, right? Why don't we head into town and have a nice lunch or something?"

Akane lit up with glee. "That sounds great, I'd love to! Ranma, what about you?"

She wasn't particularly fond of having a 'girls day out' but _was_ very fond of good food. "Sure, I guess. Can I invite Ryoga? He's been feeling a bit cooped up lately." Plus it'd make her feel better to have another guy around, but she'd never say that aloud.

"Absolutely, the more the merrier!" Yuki said. "And afterwards, we can ask around and see if anyone knows anything about the attack. We might be able to find a lead and let the hunters know so they can take care of the threat."

"Now _that's_ a plan!" Ranma said, finally dawning a smile for the first time today. "I need to pay that jerk back for all the trouble he's put me through."

With that, they said their goodbyes and Yuki ran off to who knows where. Ranma and Akane thought they should probably get back to class as well. They might even catch the last period.

* * *

"Man that meal was great," Ryoga said, patting his belly as the group walked out of the little restaurant. "Thanks for bringing me along."

"No problem at all! I'm glad I was able to help you out a bit," Yuki said with her usual cheer.

"Yeah, I was going a little stir-crazy just staying in the dorm all the time. I really feel like I'm not getting lost so easily anymore, though."

Once they were out in the direct sunlight, both Ranma and Ryoga winced as the bright light stung their eyes and warmed their skin. Ryoga took out his umbrella to use as a parasol and Ranma went fishing in his pocket for his sunglasses. These two personal effects were becoming a daily requirement for the two of them.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Ranma scoffed, finally finding his sunglasses. "No matter what, I'm still hungry anyways."

"That's because you eat like a cow," Ryoga commented matter-of-factly.

"Better than eating like a _pig_!" Ranma yelled, squeezing his sunglasses hard.

Ryoga's eye twitched and he threw his umbrella to the ground and crouched down in a fighting stance. "You wanna go, Saotome?!"

Ranma smirked and did the same. "Anytime, anywhere, bacon breath!"

They both lunged and Ryoga swung a fist into the red and black blur that was Ranma, who quickly ducked under his arm and launched several punches of his own right into Ryoga's gut with lightning speed.

Ryoga stumbled a bit and Ranma whipped around to lunge again when mid-thrust he was splashed with cold water from an angry mop-top on the sidelines.

"Honestly, Ranma! Can't you control your temper for five minutes?" Akane demonished the smaller girl that was scowling at her. "You're gonna make him throw up, hitting him like that right after eating."

"You couldn't find another way to get my attention, Akane? It's freakin' cold out here and now I'm soaked!" Ranma cried, turning her ire to her fiance and away from Ryoga entirely.

"That's not the only reason I splashed you!" Akane shouted, surprising Ranma. What other reason could there be? "Lately you've been such an ass as a guy that you're really getting on my nerves! If I'm going to be spending all afternoon with you out here, I don't want to put up with your constant attitude!"

Ranma was taken aback by this. She knew she was getting a little testy lately when the cravings set in, and the cravings were always worse as a guy, but was she really being that bad? Akane wasn't just mad at what happened; her anger must have been building for days and this was just the last straw. Ranma couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

She bowed her head slightly in shame at this realization. "Is... it true? Have I really been that bad as a guy?" She looked up to find a scowling Akane nodding, and she looked to Ryoga who was doing the same while rubbing his sore gut.

Even Yuki just smiled and scratched her cheek, avoiding eye contact. Being on the disciplinary committee, she must have heard about all of the outbursts Ranma's been making in class.

"I'm sorry," Ranma sheepishly said, rubbing the back of her head. "The cravings are just way worse as a guy and with all the stress of the last few days here, I guess I'm really startin' to lose it, aren't I?"

She reached down to grab her dropped sunglasses and when she picked them up, a lens fell right out of a broken socket.

"Damn, they must have broken when I dropped them 'cause I was splashed," she deduced, sending an angry glare over to Akane who simply looked away, suddenly fascinated by a bird going by.

Ranma sighed. "Guess I'll live. It still stings, but doesn't hurt nearly as bad as a girl."

She began walking down the road again, with Yuki and Akane following behind, when suddenly she felt the sting vanish from her skin and her eyes. She looked up to find that Ryoga was holding his umbrella open over Ranma's head as well as his own. Sure, he was still scowling, but he didn't need to speak for Ranma to understand his intentions. They were in this together, afterall.

"Thanks, Ryoga," she quietly muttered.

Together they walked along with Akane and Yuki in tow behind them and Yuki had to stifle a giggle at the sight of Ranma and Ryoga walking together under an umbrella in broad daylight. Even couples they passed as they walked down the road were looking on with looks of adoration.

Yuki gently tugged on Akane's sweater and leaned into her ear saying, "Don't they look like such a cute couple like that?"

Akane deadpanned. "'Cute' isn't the word I'd use. More like a powder keg waiting to go off."

Ranma was barely able to overhear this and scowled with a blush, picking up speed and stalking off ahead of the group and into the direct sunlight. Who cares if it hurt a little? She wasn't going to be subjected to that again. She already had enough of the rumors around the night class that they were a couple and it was really starting to get on her nerves.

"Ranma, wait up! Where are you going?" Akane called; her and Yuki jogging a little to catch up to the fiesty little redhead.

"We're looking for some demon vampire thing, right?" she called back without looking behind her, lest they see her flushed cheeks. "Well we're not gonna find it by standin' around here!"

The stalking grew into a light jog with Akane and Yuki complaining behind Ranma and Ryoga bringing up the rear.

As they passed an alleyway, something caught the corner of Ryoga's eye. He stopped to look down the cobblestone street and saw what appeared to be a little girl all alone, crying. She couldn't have been more than six years old.

"Hey guys, wait up!" he called to the group, but they had already rounded a corner.

'_Damn, I got separated!_' he thought to himself. '_At the very least, I can help this kid and then go find them later._'

Ryoga carefully walked down the alleyway, collapsing his umbrella as he went.

"Hey little girl, are you ok?" he asked gently. "Where'd your parents go?"

"I- I-" she started between sniffles, looking up at him, and then saying, "I don't know!" With that, she ran off down the alley and made a turn down the winding path.

Ryoga followed quickly behind. "Hey, wait up! Let's look for them together!"

They ran through a network of stone alleyways working their way deeper into the small hamlet, to an area eerily reminiscent of the ghost town where he was bit. He finally caught up with the girl in a small abandoned courtyard with an empty water fountain in the center, surrounded by tall stone buildings. If he didn't have the little girl as proof, he'd have thought he'd wandered into eastern Europe again.

She had finally stopped at the base of a building near an open door and crouched down, sobbing loudly.

As Ryoga approached, he noticed that the sky seemed to be getting darker and he hoped against hope that it wouldn't start to rain.

"Hey, are you ok? You don't need to run from me, I'm trying to help," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

At the touch, the sobbing abruptly stopped. She slowly turned to face him and he let out a gasp of terror at what he saw.

The girl's face was twisted; mutilated. Her eyes were black without pupils and her skin had turned a sickly grey with black veins branching out like spider webs. She slowly drew a smile and a light laughter escaped her black lips as they widened to reveal a set of uneven spiked teeth. The most unsettling thing of all was the set of four sharp fangs that reminded Ryoga of a snake ready to pounce on its victim.

"Finally," her raspy voice cracked. "A pure-blood! That should keep me alive a while longer!"

Ryoga started backing away slowly, shaking with fear and muttering to himself, "What the hell is this thing?"

She lunged.

Nearly a mile away in the other direction, Ranma suddenly froze, causing Akane to almost bump into her. Both Akane and Yuki took the moment to hunch down and try to catch their breaths.

"What gives, Ranma?" Akane asked between heavy breaths.

"I smell... Blood." She took a very deep breath through her nose and slowly let it out. "It's like blood, but earthy and more... familiar."

That's when she realized someone was missing.

"Where's Ryoga?" she asked aloud and then it hit her. She got a sinking feeling in her gut that something was horribly wrong. "Shit, don't tell me..."

She bounded off light a lightning bolt in the direction of the scent, with Akane and Yuki struggling to keep up.

They arrived at the abandoned courtyard to find Ryoga staring intently at a dark window of one of the tallest buildings. He was panting heavily, and clutching his arm. His long yellow sleeve was soaked in crimson.

The second Ranma saw it, her eyes went wide and began to glow their eerie red. She couldn't help but walk slowly towards him.

"Ryoga!" Akane screamed. "What happened, are you alright?"

"_RUN!_" he barked, stopping Akane in her tracks.

She looked stunned, unsure of what was going on. Ryoga's gaze never wavered, and unfortunately, neither did Ranma's.

"Ranma, what are you doing?" Akane asked the shorter girl, but she wasn't listening. She was just awkwardly shambling towards Ryoga, locked on to his bleeding arm.

Yuki saw the look on Ranma's face and immediately jumped into action. She ran between Ranma and Ryoga and reached under her skirt, pulling out the collapsable rod she kept on a hidden thigh strap. The rod extended with a flick of her wrist and crackled to life with electricity that somehow didn't seem to hurt her.

"Don't come any closer, Ranma!" she commanded to deaf ears.

An eerie laughter broke out from the abandoned building, echoing through its stone walls and sending chills up the spines of the human girls.

"W-what was that?" Akane asked no-one through trembling lips.

Suddenly, Akane was slammed into a nearby wall by a gray and black blur.

"Akane!" Yuki screamed, lunging after her and swiping at the demon child with her rod.

The child jumped clear over it and away from Akane, laughing all the while.

"It's a Level E! Run!" Yuki cried.

"Akane, are you alright?" Ryoga shouted from across the courtyard, but he could hardly move. He carefully shuffled his way towards the girls fighting the demon, going as fast as he could, but it wasn't good enough. He had lost too much blood and his vision was starting to blur. "Akane!"

Nevertheless, he pushed forward but was held back by a hand gently tugging at his shirt.

He whipped his head around to snarl at the hindrance. "Ranma, what the hell are you doing?! Get over there and help them!"

But she couldn't hear him. Her eyes stared listlessly at his bloodied arm. Suddenly they darted up to meet his, and he froze. Her gaze didn't seem demanding or even hungry. It was more like that of a dog quietly begging for table scraps. He wanted to hit her to snap her out of it, to do _something_ to get her to go to Akane's aid, but he couldn't move, let alone speak. He was completely paralyzed from Ranma's pleading gaze staring deep into his soul.

Slowly, she slid her hand down to his and with the softest touch, brought the bloody hand up to her mouth. She stole one last glance into his eyes before closing them and gently running her tongue the length of his middle finger. When she reached the end, she stuck the ring finger in her mouth and slowly removed it, clean of is delicious luster.

She opened her eyes and a gentle smile played at her face. She moved closer still to the frozen boy, taking a deep breath as she moved her face from his shoulder to the nape of his neck. She gingerly cupped his cheek with her other hand.

The tickle of her breath and the soft touch of her body leaning into his made him blush. He wanted anything to push her away, but try as he might, he couldn't. He was completely paralyzed.

She pulled back momentarily to give him one last longing gaze, meeting his frightened eyes with her glowing ones. Her hand slid down from his cheek and her fingertips gently brushed his neck on their way down to trace his collarbone.

His blush deepened.

Finally, she spoke. It was soft and faint, barely a whisper, but the words were clear. "May I?"

Ryoga wasn't able to respond. With those eyes and the way she politely asked, he might actually have said yes under certain circumstances, but this time, he wanted nothing more than to get away.

Ranma let his silence hang for a moment, taking it as a yes, and gave a small nod before leaning in and baring her fangs.

He gave a small yelp from the sharp pain but it was instantly replaced with an incredible sense of pleasure, like this was the best feeling he'd ever had. Better than a long hot soak at a hot spring after a long week of wandering. Better than that time Akane kissed his nose as P-chan. The sensation was nearly enough to bring him to his knees and he would have collapsed if he weren't completely paralyzed. He didn't want this feeling to ever end.

Across the courtyard, Yuki's staff clanked as it bounced on the cobblestone path. Her weapon was knocked from her hands and the demonic child was threatening to lunge again.

She and Akane were both winded from trying to fight this thing to no avail.

The demon lunged towards Yuki who was prepared to roll out of the way at the last second, but it was knocked to the side by a well-timed roundhouse kick from Akane.

The child collected herself and snarled at Akane, baring its fangs. It lunged at her and tackled her to the ground, ready to make her kill. Before her fangs could reach Akane's neck, Akane managed to reach out and grab Yuki's staff and used it to push the demon child back as best she could, but she couldn't hold it forever.

"Ranmaaaa! Where are you?!" she yelled, glancing in the direction of the two martial artists and seeing them in a bizarre position. For a moment she was confused at what Ranma was doing to make Ryoga look that way. Was she giving him a hickey or something? Then it hit her. "Wait, no... _RANMAAAAA!_" she yelled.

The yell snapped Ranma out of it with a flinch, pulling back from Ryoga's neck with her eyes going back to their new normal of lavendar.

She met Ryoga's gaze with an embarrassed tinge of red on her cheeks and quietly whispered, "thank you".

She ran off to help Akane, freeing Ryoga from his paralysis and letting him finally collapse to the ground in a hump, but that didn't last long. After a moment's rest, he popped up, completely reinvigorated. He clenched his fists several times and found that the gash in his arm was completely healed. Where has this newfound energy come from? Was Ranma's bite really capable of doing that?

He put those thoughts out of his mind to focus on the issue at hand. Ranma had knocked the Level E off of Akane and was trying to draw its attention away from Yuki so she could help Akane.

Ranma danced around and taunted the child, sticking her tongue out and pulling down her eyelid in tease. "Whatchya doin', attackin' humans like that? Don'tchya want the taste of a vampire's blood?" she said, pulling the collar of her shirt back to expose the nape of her neck.

The child froze for a moment, perplexed, before launching back at Ranma who simply dodged with her incredible speed.

"You! What are you?" the child asked, slashing with her hands like claws. "You smell a little like a pure-blood, but it's different somehow! Different from _him_!" she spat.

Ranma's eye twitched at this comment about Ryoga but she quickly regained her playful composure. "I guess you'll just have to taste me to find out~!" she teased in a sing-song voice.

Ryoga caught up to her as she led the child away from the girls into a more open area of the courtyard and just before was about to jump into the fray, he realized that Ranma wasn't fighting.

She was just leading the girl around in circles, trying to make her more and more mad as they went.

Ryoga smirked, recognizing the signature move, and he waited for his moment. Just before Ranma reached the center of her spiral, Ryoga jumped in yelling, "bakusai tenketsu!" at the same moment Ranma crouched down to throw an uppercut, yelling, "hiryu shoten ha!"

The Level E girl was launched high into the air and pelted by a tornado of stones. When she finally landed, it was in a bloody hump on the far end of the courtyard. And she wasn't moving.

Ryoga walked up to the kid cautiously, unsure if she was dead or simply unconscious. When he was about a foot away, she tackled him to the ground and pinned him best she could. Despite Ryoga's immense strength, he was struggling against that of a Level E. The realization that even a child at the end has such a strong will to survive struck him hard.

This time, she didn't hesitate, and immediately bore her fangs, but she was kicked off of the boy by a red and black rocket launched straight at her.

"Lay off him, your fight's with me now!" Ranma yelled. Now, she was pissed.

The girl stood up and wiped some blood from her cracked lip. "I'll never give up! His pure blood is my last chance! I _need_ it, even if it only gives me another day of life!"

"Not if I can help it!" Ranma declared, taking her defensive stance again.

The girl shrugged and bore her terrifying smile once again. "Your funeral, Red. I'm getting four for the hunt of one!"

She shot towards Ranma and Ranma towards her, both engaging in a quick trade of fists.

Ranma got scratched all over, her clothes torn and blood beginning to trickle from the wounds. She looked down at herself, seeing the seeping blood from one of the larger cuts, and grinned. She locked eyes with the demon child and they began to glow once more.

The Level E was frozen still. Rather than jumping around at lightning speed as she had been, she was suddenly unable to move and unable to look away while Ranma slowly approached her slowly, locked in a trance. Ranma's body seemed to be moving of its own accord.

She couldn't even scream in protest when Ranma cracked her neck to the side sharply and unceremoniously bit into the girl's neck. The girl's body twitched as Ranma drank and drank to the horror of her three friends watching until the girl went limp and exploded in a cloud of dust.

"Peh! Disgusting! Nowhere near as tasty as..." Ranma seemed to be muttering to herself.

Suddenly, she regained her senses and realized what she'd done. She looked up, tears threatening to escape her wide eyes at the realization that she'd killed someone. She's actually killed someone. She'd lost control and drank from someone until they were nothing more than dust sifting through her fingers.

A deep roll of thunder let out above her, so deep and clear that it vibrated her very bones.

She was terrified of herself. So terrified that she didn't even notice that she was suddenly surrounded by a ring of people holding blades to her throat and guns to her head.

Ranma didn't know these people. She looked around to find several night class students standing back near Akane, Yuki, and Ryoga, who stared on in disbelief. Akane had silent tears flowing down her cheek with fear written all over her face. Not just fear, but disgust as well.

This hit Ranma even harder. To have Akane scared of her, and thoroughly disgusted by what she'd done... she couldn't take that. Ranma collapsed to her hands and knees and the tears began to flow.

"I'm sorry, I am so, so sorry! I-I don't know what came over me, and, a-and-" she choked out between her hard sobs. "I'm a monster... Kill me!" she snapped up, locking eyes with the hunter who had a gun barrel an inch from her skull. "Do it, kill me! Before it happens again, please!"

"Don't you think that's a bit rash?" a familiar voice called out from behind the group of people. At those words, the group withdrew their weapons and stood back, letting the man who said them approach the girl and crouch down to greet her at eye level.

"There's been plenty of bloodshed today already, don't you agree?" Kaien said with his trademark smile. "We should get back to the academy and talk this over."

"W-what?" Ranma asked, stunned at the proposition.

"We'll take care of her from here. She's a special case," Kaien said to the group. The people all shared worried looks with each other but nodded and began to walk away.

Ranma watched in confusion as the strangers with weapons left and the vampires all turned to leave as well. Yuki began running towards her and the headmaster and Ryoga managed to open his umbrella a second before the torrential rain began.

As Ranma took Kaien's offered hand and rose to her feet, she couldn't look away from Akane who was still standing on the far end of the courtyard, still frozen with fear. Fear of what Ranma could do.

Fear of what Ranma had become.

Ranma would never forget that look on Akane's face. Not for the rest of her life.

* * *

Ranma sat on the edge of her bed with her head in her hands, her torn clothing still soaked with water and blood. She'd been ordered to stay in her room until Kaien Cross could speak with the hunter's guild and the head vampires about what had happened, and decide her fate. Ranma was sure she'd be executed for this.

"Hey, it probably won't be so bad," Ryoga offered, trying to cheer her up a bit. While she was on house arrest, he thought he'd help keep an eye on her. Not that he had anywhere else to go, anyway. "The fact that they didn't kill you on the spot means you'll probably be fine."

Ranma didn't look up at him. "They only backed off because Cross asked them to. He must have a lot of sway over those vampire hunters."

Ryoga nodded in agreement. "You owe him your life."

Ranma agreed.

"Why don't you try a kata to meditate and clear your head? Helps me sometimes," he offered.

"Good idea, but I dunno if it'll help this time," Ranma said, standing up and walking to a more open section of the room.

She stood in the center and put her hands together and closed her eyes. She took a very deep breath through her nose and let it out her mouth and opened her eyes and began the slow martial dance that she'd known for her entire life. With a clear mind, she fluidly moved from one move to the next, deflecting an invisible attacker and slowly throwing her own punches. No worries about what happened that day, just a clear focus on making the usual patterns in the usual way.

It was going well for a moment until she was distracted by a jingling sound coming from her pocket and seemingly loud in the quiet of the room.

Snapped out of her kata, she reached into her pocket and found the culprit of the sound: her tin of blood tablets.

Seeing them brought it all back to the surface. The girl several days ago, the fact that she had to constantly be a girl to keep her sanity, drinking Ryoga's blood and enjoying every ounce with every fiber of her being, and then killing a six year old child.

Her face distorted in a mixture of rage and guilt and she slammed the tin at the nearest wall, making it explode and shower tablets all over the room.

She collapsed to the ground and silent tears began flowing relentlessly. "I'm... I'm losing myself..." she said aloud. And that made her very afraid.

Ryoga came up to her and carefully took her wrist, guiding her towards the bed and sitting her down on the edge before sitting down next to her. Without a word, he began patting her back.

He honestly didn't know what to say. This whole situation was screwed up beyond salvation and all either of them could do was live to see what tomorrow would bring. He just hoped he wouldn't be left alone in this messed up place if Ranma was hauled off to some sort of vampire prison or something.

He was torn from his thoughts when the strangest thing happened. Ranma had leaned into him and burried her head in his chest and let loose all her pent up emotions in heavy sobs. For how much she'd been through in the short time since they were bitten, it's no wonder she would erode away that cocky exterior and expose herself like this eventually. Ryoga just couldn't believe it took saving them all from a demon to push her over the edge. '_Ranma's way stronger than I ever thought_,' he admitted to himself.

Still, seeing her in such a vulnerable state made him forget for a moment that this was his long-time rival and sort-of friend. What he saw was a fragile girl unloading all of her frustrations at the world into his bloodied shirt. He couldn't help but put an arm around her for comfort. He looked down at the sobbing girl and pulled a loose strand of dark red hair over her ear, giving him a glimpse of that milky smooth neck of hers. Instinctively, he thought about it for just a moment, but the weight of the afternoon overrode any urges to drink that he may have had.

If he ever drank from someone against their will, he'd be the one sobbing in someone else's arms from the guilt.

All he could do was hold her as the minutes passed until finally she lifted her head up and with a shameful expression, apologized. "Sorry to unload on ya like that. That was... pretty unmanly of me, I guess." '_Geez, now I'm startin' to sound like mom_,' she thought.

"After what happened today, any man in your position would cry," Ryoga replied. "Any _good _man. Any man worth his honor."

Ranma couldn't help but smirk at this, but before she could come up with anything to say, there was a knock at the door, snapping their attention away from each other.

"Ranma? It's Kaname. May I come in?" a voice called from beyond the door.

Ranma and Ryoga quickly separated and, clearing his throat, Ryoga called, "yeah, it's unlocked."

Kaname entered the room and, seeing both Ranma and Ryoga sitting near each other on one of the twin beds, he sat on the other facing them.

"I heard about what happened today," he began. Ranma looked to the floor in guilt. "I want to begin by letting you know that the Level E you fought would not have lived through the day anyway. Both the hunters guild and the vampire aristocratic council were called to hunt her down. We believe her to be the one who attacked that girl you found as well. And that wasn't the only body we found near school grounds."

This news made Ranma's heart sink. There were more victims since then?

"Why was she doing that?" she asked.

"We believe she was trying to get the attention of a pure-blood vampire like myself. You see, drinking from a pure-blood will stave off any cravings and push back the descent to a Level E by a wide margin of time. Killing a hundred humans will never be as satisfying or fulfilling as drinking from a pure-blood," he explained.

"What about me, then?" Ryoga asked. "She kept saying I was a pure-blood, but that can't be, I was turned by the same lady who bit Ranma."

"And that's very curious," Kaname admitted, bringing his hand to his chin. "I know this might be a bit forward, but I'm curious myself. Ryoga, would you mind if I had a taste of your blood? It certainly smells like pure blood, but this is the only way to be sure."

"Eh?!" Ryoga and Ranma exclaimed, both taken aback. After all they'd seen today, what if he couldn't pull back?

Kaname seemed to be able to read their minds because he let out a soft chuckle and reassured them, "I won't hurt you. I just want a small sample. Your finger will do just fine."

With a nod, Ryoga slowly raised his hand and gave his index finger to Kaname who leaned over and gave it just a small bite with one fang.

For some reason, this made Ranma uneasy. She didn't like seeing someone drink from Ryoga, even if it was only for a taste.

Kaname pulled back and licked his lips. After thinking for a moment, he sighed and said, "It's true, you are definitely a pure-blood. I have an idea as to how, but I need to do some research first."

"Well hey, now we know why you taste so good, pork-butt," Ranma said with a light chuckle and a small smile.

Ryoga smiled back, glad to see that Ranma's cheered up a bit, at least enough to tease him.

"What do you mean, Ranma? Have you tasted Ryoga's blood before?" Kaname asked, and Ranma lost her confidence again, looking down at the floor.

"I, uh... right before the fight started," she said. "It was like before with that girl in the woods, it was like I was in a trance and my body was moving on its own."

"And you didn't fight back?" Kaname asked Ryoga, turning his attention to him.

The not-so-lost boy sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"I couldn't. Something in her eyes made me unable to move. I don't know why but I couldn't even speak. I was completely frozen," he said.

"In fear, or something else?" Kaname asked.

"Something else. I," he began, turning to look at Ranma who met his eyes. "I could never be afraid of Ranma. She even asked nicely."

Ranma blushed at that and turned away.

"I see. From what I heard, that sounds like what happened with the Level E as well," Kaname said. "Ranma, I think your vampiric powers are emerging. This sounds a lot like a paralysis ability."

"Really?" she asked, her interest piqued, but then a realization set in. "That's kinda lame. With how many fights I get in, that feels like cheating, to just paralyze someone and move in for the finishing blow. There's no honor in that."

Kaname couldn't help a small chuckle. "As you grow, you'll learn to control that better. It'll be entirely up to you when you use it, if at all."

"Well that's good to know," she said. "I guess I just gotta think of it like training or somethin'."

"That's one way to think about it. So tell me Ranma, how did Ryoga's blood taste to you? And how did it compare to the Level E's?" Kaname asked, taking a deep interest in Ranma's body language.

Ranma scoffed at the memory of the Level E's blood. "The kid's was all chalky and nasty. Absolutely disgusting."

"A reflection of the soul, perhaps," Kaname mused. "And Ryoga?"

Turning to look at Ryoga and shying away when she saw he was looking at her with interest in what she had to say, she said, "I-it was a lot different. It was very nice, like... a warm sweater or camomile tea, or a long soak in a hot bath. And it had an earthy taste to it, but not in a bad way, but a comforting way. It reminded me of all those years traveling and camping and living on the road."

Now it was Ryoga's turn to blush. He didn't know why, but hearing Ranma praise him like that, even if it was for something he had no control over, made him feel embarrassed.

"Hold on to that distinction, the both of you. A vampire in good health and standing will taste a lot better than one that's nearing the end," Kaname said. The others nodded in understanding. "Well if you'll excuse me, I have to do some research on how Ryoga could possibly be a pure-blood."

"Kaname, wait," Ranma said, rising to her feet. "The kid said something about my blood smellin' like his, but different somehow. What did she mean?" she asked, holding out her index finger for Kaname.

He nodded in understanding and took a sample from her, same as he did from Ryoga, and swallowed.

"Strange, but the Level E was right. Your blood tastes like a mixture of a pure-blood vampire and something new I've never tasted before. How very interesting."

"So you don't have any ideas?" Ranma said, sagging her shoulders in defeat. '_I guess I won't be getting any answers about that soon_,' she thought.

"I'm afraid not, but I'll keep you in mind while I'm doing my research," Kaname said, also standing and motioning for the door. So as not to seem rude, Ryoga stood to see off the guest as well. "I'll be off. Ryoga, please let me know if you learn anything from your parents. It could greatly help this research."

Ryoga nodded. "Will do."

And with that, Kaname was gone, leaving them alone together once more.

"Hey, Ryoga, that reminds me, Akane got a letter sayin' your mom was home. With all the chaos that happened the day we found that girl, I kinda forgot to tell you. Sorry 'bout that," Ranma sheepishly said, rubbing the back of her head.

"Really? That's great!" Ryoga smiled. "I hope she sticks around long enough for me to see her, but... I don't know when we'll get to go home."

"I heard we'll be able to go home for a couple weeks in December for winter break. Kasumi said she's going to your house every day to keep up with your mom and make sure she doesn't get lost," Ranma explained, repeating what Akane had told her earlier in the week.

"Oh man, I'm really looking forward to that," Ryoga said. "I have so many questions, and I'm sure she does too. I hope she takes this whole vampire thing well."

Ranma gave a half smile, thinking about how her own parents had reacted, and how they might react to her admitting that she had to spend more time now as a girl than as a guy to stay sane. "Yeah, I hope so too."

There was another knock at the door and this time, the knockers let themselves in.

"Ranma, Ryoga, please have a seat," Kaien said, motioning to the table near the back of the room. He had entered with Akane at his side and together, the group all sat down at the small table that thankfully had enough chairs to spare.

Ranma was shaking with dread and Akane put a hand on her knee under the table to reassure her, but the shaking wouldn't stop. She was afraid of what Kaien would say, and afraid of how Akane would treat her.

She didn't calm down until Ryoga gave her a stern look, as if to say that he had her back no matter what. For some reason, that look was enough to calm her shaking.

"I ran into Kaname in the hall and he told me about your interesting lineage, Ryoga," Kaien began, addressing the boy to his right. "The hunter's guild has a massive research library and I'll be looking into it in my spare time as well."

"Really?" Ryoga asked. "You guys don't have to go so far out of your way for me, you know."

"Oh, it's no bother at all!" he said with a smile. "I consider this a learning experience. And the more I learn, the better I can help the school!"

"Well in that case, thank you. I'd like to hear what you find," Ryoga said with a nod.

"So what happened, Mr. Cross? What's gonna happen to me?" Ranma asked. She couldn't handle the anxiety and just wanted to get this over with.

Kaien sighed and donned his serious demeanor. "I've discussed the matter with both the hunter's guild and the vampire council and we came up with a compromise. You will be suspended for two days and not allowed to leave the moon dorm grounds, and after that, you will be permanently joining the night class."

Ranma sank in defeat. "I knew it. I bloody knew it."

"You can't, Mr. Cross!" Akane cried. "I'd never see him again!"

Kaien sighed again. "It's out of my hands, I'm afraid. If it were up to either group alone, you'd be either executed or locked up until you could be used as a hunting weapon. I really stuck my neck out for you today. I want you to be able to live a happy life, not used as a tool or killed by people who are scared of you."

Ranma was quiet.

"I believe you need more time around your own kind, who can help you better contain your urges. You're lucky that the Level E today was a wanted killer, but if you don't learn to control yourself, tomorrow it could be someone you care about."

Kaien took his hand and placed it over Ranma's, snapping her out of her dissasociative state and back to the moment. "This truly is what's best for you."

Kaien finished explaining the fine details of class schedules and excused himself, leaving Akane with the two fighters, though nobody felt they had any fighting spirit left in them. They all felt defeated by the day's events and Cross' final verdict.

"Akane," Ranma began, addressing the sullen girl. "You're afraid of me, aren't you?"

Akane nodded and looked away. For some reason, she felt guilty admitting that.

"I was really scared seeing you go after the kid like that, and maybe I'm a little scared of you still... So much has happened that I just don't know what to do," she admitted. "In that fight today, I didn't even stand a chance. I could have been killed, same as Yuki. We both got very lucky today."

Akane sighed and took a sip of tea from a bottle she'd brought with her.

"I felt so useless. With all the vampires around here, and you moving to the night class permanently, I kinda wonder if I should just go home," she said, her voice cracking a bit. For some reason, it felt like giving up and giving up made her feel like crying. "It's bad enough that I hardly see Ryoga anymore, but hardly seeing you... why am I even here?"

She let loose a couple of tears at this self reflection. She really did feel like she was useless to her friend and her fiancee.

Ranma took Akane's shoulders forcibly, causing Akane to snap her head up and look Ranma dead in the eye. "Akane, I need you now more than ever. You're my rock. You keep me grounded. Without you and Ryoga, I'd have lost my sanity days ago. And now I'm essentially losing my manhood, too," she admitted. She knew it was happening but it hurt to actually acknowledge it like this. "I need you to remind me who I am."

Akane smiled and broke free from Ranma's grip, throwing her arms around the shorter girl in a big hug. "Thank you, Ranma. I need to know I'm not a burden to you." She pulled back and wiped a tear from her eyes. "I'll stick around, for your sake."

"Thanks, Akane," Ranma smiled back. "We can always hang out in between the class changeovers, right?"

There were rules about the night class mingling with the day, but Ranma's relationship with Akane was an exception. Yuki and Zero were already exceptions to that rule too, being on the disciplinary committee and all. Yuki's a year younger than them though, so Ranma doubted she'd be seeing much of her outside of the daily class changeover.

She hoped to see Yuki sooner than that, to appologize if she scared her and for ruining her afternoon off. And to make sure she was ok after all of the day's events.

"Right. I'll come by and see how you're doing tomorrow, alright?" Akane said, moving towards the door.

"Right, see ya," Ranma said, both she and Ryoga giving small waves goodbye as Akane closed the door behind her.

The second the door was closed, Ranma let out a sigh and stomped over to Ryoga, popping him on the shoulder.

"Hey, what gives?!" he snarled, scowling at her and rubbing the sore spot. He was tough as nails so it didn't real hurt, but he must have been bruised in the shoulder during the fight earlier.

Ranma held her head down, with her fringe hiding her eyes from Ryoga's glare. "Don't... Please don't tell anyone that I lost control and cried... in your arms like that..." She turned, unable to even look in his general direction from the embarrassment. "Especially Akane. Somethin' that girly, she'd never let me live it down. Please."

Ryoga sternly nodded, understanding how Ranma's fragile masculinity from years of parental abuse had made her afraid of showing emotions like she had, let alone losing contol entirely and crying into his chest as she had. He knew that she was genuinely scared of losing control of her emotions like that. How fragile she had seemed in that moment. He was the only person she could possibly have exposed to that side of her, and she knew it too. They had an understanding that went deep from all of the shared life experiences and the battles they've shared together. They had a bond of trust, and he couldn't break it.

"I swear. On my honor as a martial artist."

* * *

**A/N:** Did I say get spoopy? I meant get fluffy. All aboard the fluff train! Once again, I just wanted to remind you all that this is basically a first draft. I'll go back to correct any mistakes at some later date, but in those revisions, the story wouldn't actually change, so it gets posted anyway.

I was really hoping to get this out by halloween, but man that week was crazy with work and everything else that was going on. I barely had any time to work on it.

On the plus side, I *did* manage to skeleton this whole story out through to the end so I have a rough idea of how much more there is to this. The project is currently looking to be about nine chapters long.

Thank you all for reading and sticking with this!

**Posted 11/5/19**

~Remember, remember, the fifth of November~


	5. Chapter 5: Reverie in the Moonlight

Chapter 5: Reverie in the Moonlight

* * *

**Warning:** This chapter contains adult language, alcohol, and adult situations. Enjoy! ;D

* * *

A slow and steady breath.

The sound of wind rustling through what little remained of the autumn trees.

Twisting back, he pulled his arm and let his hand go limp.

His arm struck out, a fist clenching as it went, carrying the weight of Ranma's whole body twisting into the momentum.

_CRACK!_

His fist hit the section of the tree wrapped tightly in rope.

The whole tree violently shuttered and split clean at the rope line, falling back with a reverberating thud.

Ranma pulled his fist back and let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

He closed his eyes and clasped his hands together in front of him in silent meditation.

"Hey, you good now? It's time to get ready for class," Ryoga asked, walking up to his friend from behind.

Neither of them noticed the surprised whispers from the gawking night class students milling about the dorm's yard.

Ranma smirked and opened his eyes. "Yeah, I think I'm good. Let's go." He'd been using the trees as training dummies over the last few days to relieve his stress, and now he was ready for what lay ahead. At least, he thought he was.

Together, they returned to their dorm room leaving surprised students and a raging Arakawa in their wake.

Tonight would be Ranma's first night back to class since the incident with a Level E.

Two days had passed since then and Ranma'd been on house arrest for his own safety as well as the safety of others. It was thought that if he could lose himself at the scent of blood to the point of killing, that he wasn't safe to be around the day students at all, especially when the cravings as a guy had just been getting worse and worse.

He'd spent the two days mostly as a girl, wandering the dorm's grounds and sparring with Ryoga whenever he got the chance. But tonight was his first night back at class. No more would he be the wandering brooding amusement of all the vampires around here. From tonight onward, he, rather, _she_, would be one of them. A normal night class student.

After Ryoga found him taking out his stress on a tree, the two headed back to their dorm room where Ranma was actually a bit relieved to feel the change cold water brought. Yeah, it royally sucked having to be a girl most of the time, but these days, it was better than having to change almost every hour just to drink away the cravings for blood. She found it comfortable to just be normal all day for a change, aside from having to drink once or twice. It was getting harder and harder to live as a guy, and while she was loath to admit, she knew there was nothing she could do about it for the time being. They had to find some clue on how to end this nightmare, and soon.

Well, nightmare for her. For Ryoga's part, he was actually doing quite well. He wasn't getting lost nearly as often as he thought he should, and he was actually going to school again for the first time in years. And doing well, at that! What's more is that by not getting lost so much and by hardly leaving school property, he's hardly spent any time as the little black piglet known as P-chan. Aside from nearly being mauled to death by a feral Level E child, this was shaping up to be the best time of his life.

If only he could figure out his love life, too.

When that whole episode with Saffron happened in China, Ryoga saw that Ranma and Akane had something between them and he just was not on her radar. To her, he was a close friend, and nothing more. And that was ok since he had Akari. Sweet, sweet Akari.

Akari Unryuu raised championship sumo wrestling pigs and needless to say, she found Ryoga's curse absolutely adorable. For Ryoga to find a girl who was not only cute, but liked him AND was ok with the curse? Well, she may have just been the one!

Unforunately, she tended to treat P-chan just as much like a pet as Akane did in her ignorance, and that started to get to Ryoga after a while. Akari was finding more and more reason to see Ryoga as a piglet, and it hurt knowing she loved this aspect of him that he absolutely hated with every fiber of his being. To be loved for something you aren't isn't love. It's adoration. Adoration and idealization. It seemed to him that she only loved him because of the curse and after a while, the tension that wedged between them finally made him call it off.

Someday he'd find a girl that was ok with the curse, but loved him for _him_, not the little black piglet he despised becoming.

Just like Ranma had found in Akane.

Or so he thought.

To Ranma, his relationship with Akane has always been one that was forced upon them both and despite becoming closer friends and maybe blurting out some terms of affection when he thought she was dead in that grand battle, their relationship had gone nowhere. They had their wedding and it failed miserably thanks to his so-called 'friends'.

But had the wedding gone off without a hitch, would he be happy? He thought about it a lot and didn't think he would. Yeah, they got along better than ever, but they still fought and there wasn't any sort of... connection between them. Ranma had always heard that love was supposed to be something magical that was an unshakable bond between two people. A loving relationship was supposed to be fun and enjoyable and full of romance and all that girly nonsense.

And his relationship with Akane was none of that.

They both seemed to be going along with it because they had to, and they'd resigned themselves to fate. They'd get married, have a kid to properly unite the schools, and then what? They got along but they couldn't stand being around each other for more than a couple of hours at a time. And that's if they were having a _good_ day.

No, Ranma was certiain that their marriage was doomed. He'd do his duty as honor dictated and then that would be it. He'd either become a drunk like his father, playing shogi with Ryoga as they reminisced about the good times in their youth, or he'd leave on 'training trips', maybe even taking their kid with him, all to avoid being around her constantly.

His life was spoken for with no input from himself, and he dreaded his future.

Ranma liked her, but he didn't think they should get married. Especially after the failed wedding made him seriously think it all through. There was no love there. Not as he understood it.

It was these thoughts that bore down on their minds as Ryoga and Ranma made their evening procession from the dorm, past the crowd of screaming girls and one screaming boy, to the main school building where they'd have their nightly lesson.

And why, you ask?

Well, because the day before, the dorm's bulletin board was adorned with a simple note announcing a winter ball to be held on the evening of December 1st, and the whole school was abuzz over it.

Even Akane in the day class was excited because it was one of the few times when the day class and night class would be allowed to interact with each other.

So naturally, this was all anyone in their classroom could talk about in the minutes before the teacher arrived and class began.

Ranma and Ryoga tried their best to ignore it as they took their seats but they hadn't been sitting for more than ten seconds before a random girl made her way over to gush about the dance.

"Ranko, Ryoga, are you guys excited for the dance?" the girl asked, giddy like no tomorrow. She was taller than Ranma by a solid six inches but still didn't quiet meet Ryoga's eyes with her blonde hair. Over the past week, she'd struck up casual conversation with Ranma here and there, but they'd never spoken for more than a few minutes at a time. Ranma assumed that she didn't have many friends here yet and was just trying to reach out, and Ranma felt bad projecting her angst onto such a happy girl, so she amused her.

"Hey Keiko," she said, forcing a smile and looking up at the giddy girl. "I, uh, my _brother_ is going with his fiance in the day class, but I won't be there. I've got stuff to do." Well, it wasn't a total lie. Yes, she was in the night class for good now, but the dance was a different story. She'd still be allowed to go to the dance as Akane's date so long as she was careful.

"Me neither," Ryoga solemly added. "I don't exactly have anyone to go with, and I just got out of a relationship, so I don't really want to be around that kind of environment." He didn't add that he was also afraid he might get lost on his way to the ballroom even if he _did_ have a date.

Keiko tilted her head in confusion. "Really? You guys aren't going together?"

Ranma and Ryoga looked to each other and then back to Keiko, with Ranma speaking for both of them when she said, "why would we?"

Keiko was astonished. "Aren't you two... _together_?"

It took them both a moment to realize what she meant, and when they did, they both shot out of their seats and screamed, "WHAT?!" simultaneously.

"You mean you aren't? Then why do you share a room?" she asked with an air of innocence.

Ranma was red as a beet as she snapped back, "I-it's special circumstances!"

"Yeah!" Ryoga added. "And her brother's with us there too, so there's nothin' going on!"

Keiko quirked a brow and smiled a knowing smile. "Alright, I'll take your word for it. But you should at least consider it. You guys would make a cute couple~."

"We do NOT!" Ranma shouted. "Who'd wanna go to a dance with this clumsy oaf anyway? He'd probably get lost on his way to the punch bowl!"

"Oh yeah? Well at least I know HOW to dance unlike you, Saotome!" Ryoga said, looming over to glare down at her.

"Oh YEAH?! Well I can dance circles around you in a fight anyday, buddy! You'd fall for my Hiryu Shoten Ha before you even knew what hit ya!"

"Prove it, pipsqueak!"

By now, Ranma had a leg up on her chair and was pushing up her sleeve, ready to fight, and Ryoga was cracking his knuckles. They were both growling and glaring bolts of electric tension at each other. The room was dead silent as everyone watched the two wondering what would happen next.

The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Or, as the teacher did, with an eraser.

The chalk eraser flew between the two fighters and slammed in a cloud of dust against the base of the raised desk behind them, breaking their concentration in a fit of coughs.

"Sit down, you two," the teacher said with a tease in his voice, knowing he'd get to them. "Keep the lover's quarrel to the dorms. We're here to learn."

Ranma and Ryoga both blushed harder at the comment.

Ryoga sat down with gusto, not looking anywhere near Ranma's direction, but she picked up her books and stalked off to sit at the far end of the room, far far away from him, with a scowl on her face.

She sat down in a huff. She was sick of everyone thinking they were a couple and hated the fact that since she was now going to be in the night class full-time, those rumors would only get worse.

She groaned at that realization and slammed her head down on the desk with a loud thud.

Keiko sat down next to her and rubbed her back. "Sorry, chica."

* * *

After class was over, the events at the start were all but forgotten and they could tolerate each others' presence once again. Ranma didn't want Ryoga to get lost, at any rate.

Together they made their way back to their dorm and decided to relax with some tea in the foyer. They were expecting Akane for her usual morning chat and had some time so they thought to relax with something other than artificial blood for a change.

After a few minutes of quietly sipping their tea, a thought finally occurred to Ranma.

"Hey, so, why _don't_ you wanna go to the dance? Was the breakup really that bad? I thought _you _left _her_?" she asked, unaware of the concept of 'tact'.

Ryoga sighed and looked down to the floor. "It wasn't that bad, I just... I don't know if I wanna get involved with someone again, y'know? It's hard enough finding someone who's ok with the curse, but with how often I get lost, I'd never even see her. I guess that's part of why Akari hurt so much. I hardly ever saw her and when I did, all she seemed to care about was P-chan. I don't want that again."

Ranma wasn't sure what to say to that. She'd never been in a real relationship, aside from Akane if you could even count that, and even if you did, it was hardly a typical relationship. The one aspect that she thought she could help with was his directional sense, at least.

"You said it yourself, you're not getting lost so much anymore, right? When's the last time you actually got lost? ...aside from last weekend," she added, remembering how that whole fiasco began.

"I don't know. It was definitely before we came here, but I've constantly had someone with me the whole time since I was bit," he said, thinking back to his week with the Tendos and how not once had he been separated from a guide. "And here, I have you with me."

"I could always take ya to ask a girl out, and then she'll guide you to the dance from there," Ranma offered.

"It's too embarrassing to explain that I need a chauffer," Ryoga grumbled.

Ranma let out a chuckle. "Well if it came down to it, I suppose I could throw ya a bone and give you one dance. You'd be the talk of the town, dancing with the prettiest girl in school~," she teased, batting her lashes at him dramatically.

"Heh, if you did that, people might start callin' you Misses Hibiki," he grinning, knowing that would get under her skin.

And oh boy was he right.

Ranma scowled and nearly yelled, "You take that back! All I was tryin' ta do is cheer you up and you had to go and say somethin' like that!"

Ryoga just laughed watching his cute and fiesty little friend get so agitated by a simple comment, her face bunched up and getting redder by the second.

His laughter and impending bruises were cut off by a voice cutting into their little moment.

It came from a nice looking boy with brown hair and bright green eyes who was shaking ever so slightly from his nerves.

"Umm.. Ranko? Or is it Ranma? I can't seem to get it straight..." he bashfully admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

"Hey, me neither," Ranma said with a smirk. "Either's fine. What's up?"

"I-I was hoping I could talk to you f-for a minute," he said, glancing over to Ryoga and adding, "alone."

Ranma quirked an eyebrow but didn't see why not. The guy seemed harmless enough.

She left her seat by Ryoga and followed the boy several feet away and near the dorm's cafe, a small kitchen area with tables that students liked to hang out at in their downtime. There were several there, chatting away, but the boy clearly thought it was fine. He really just wanted to be away from Ryoga, she assumed.

"So, I, uh," the boy began, suddenly taking a great interest in his hand. "I couldn't help but overhear that you weren't actually with that guy at the start of class, and since you aren't planning to go to the dance, I was... I was kinda wonderin'..." he mumbled, going red in the cheeks.

Ranma's eyes went wide as she realized what was happening. "Are you... asking me out?"

She glanced back at Ryoga who was slamming his fist into the table in uncontrollable laughter.

Clearly, he had overheard.

The boy carefully nodded. "Would you? L-Like to go to the dance, that is. With me."

Ranma was embarrassed beyond belief. She wasn't sure if she should punch the guy's lights out or use her school's ultimate techinque to escape this situation and just run away. After a moment of internal struggling, she finally settled on the lamest excuse she could think of to avoid hurting the guy's feelings.

"I can't, I, uh... I have stuff to do that night, plus um... I'm really broke! Yeah! So you see, I couldn't afford a dress or nothin'. Yeah. I'm busy and I don't got nothin' to wear."

'_Nailed it_,' she thought.

"Is that all?" a girl shouted from one of the tables. Apparently, they'd all been watching the scene play out, wondering if the redheaded girl would cite the boy she lived with as her excuse. "You can borrow one of mine, we're about the same size."

Ranma whipped to face her, her cheeks going redder. "_NOT_ helping, Rima!"

Ryoga's laughter was now at the point of tears running down his face and his gut hurting with each convulsion.

"So, would you be able to go with me if you can get a dress?" the boy asked optimistically.

Ranma sputtered, unsure of what to say. Her big excuse had blown up in her face. The only way she could think to get out of this now would be to actually hurt his feelings and add to her bad reputation in the class as a cold and aloof loner.

She took a deep breath and internally appologized for what she was about to say. "Listen, I-"

"Sorry, she's holding out for a special someone," a voice came to her rescue, the owner's arm wrapping around her shoulders.

Ranma blinked up at her savior and smiled. "Yeah, sorry man, but I've got my heart set on someone else."

The boy bowed and excused himself, leaving Ranma to release a huge sigh of relief.

"Akane, I really owe you one," she said to the girl wearing her morning jogging attire.

Akane just winked and said, "you can make it up to me at the dance."

Back at the table, Ryoga was trying to dry his eyes, afraid that his tears might make him transform right in front of Akane.

"S-Saotome," he said through ragged breaths, "That. Was. Amazing. I haven't laughed that hard in ages."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, pork bun," Ranma spat, taking her seat and scowling away.

"It's a good thing I already have plans with you, Ranma," Akane said, taking her seat. "I had four different guys ask me to the dance yesterday. Can you believe it? Four!"

"If you're trying to rebuild the Hentai Horde, you're off to a good start," Ranma laughed. "It's hard coming up with excuses as a girl. Everyone thought I was dating this idiot and now that they know I'm not, I'm already getting asked out."

"Well, you said it yourself, Ran_ko_, you're the 'prettiest girl in school~'," Ryoga teased in a sing-songy mockery of her voice.

Ranma slammed her head into the table to hide the shame on her face and Ryoga roared in laughter once again, with even Akane letting out a little chuckle.

Ranma groaned and lifted her face just enough to give a pleading look to Akane. "You too?"

"Well you probably should have played along with everyone and said you were with Ryoga," Akane began, much to the surprise of her two counterparts. When they gave her questioning looks, she explained, "because then they'd all leave you alone."

Ranma groaned again. "Crap, you're right. What's worse, being attacked by guys who find me attractive?" she shuttered before continuing, "or pretend to be dating him?"

"_Ranko_ could do worse than Ryoga, he's a good guy," Akane observed in her own way of teasing Ranma.

Ranma just glared and Ryoga stifled his laughter best he could. "You're enjoying my misery a little too much," she deadpanned.

"I'm just trying to help," Akane replied with an innocent smile.

Ranma buried her head back in her arms on the wooden table.

"Fine, fine, I'll change the subject," Akane offered, taking a sip from her own teacup. "Have you heard about the missing girls?"

Ranma piqued her head up with worry and Ryoga snapped to attention as well. Neither of them had heard anything like that, so they shook their heads.

"Really? Well, over the last week, some of the girls in the day class and around town have gone missing," she began.

"Didn't that turn out to be that Level E I, uh..." Ranma shied away, remembering what she'd done. "That _we_ took care of?"

Akane set her cup down on the table. "I thought so too but another girl went missing the next day. Nobody's seen or heard from her at all. Someone in Yuki's class."

Ryoga gulped and a shutter went down Ranma's spine.

"That's... we need to find Kaname and see if he knows about this," Ryoga offered. Maybe that demon kid wasn't working alone.

"Yeah," Ranma added.

Akane glanced at her watch and then looked back up to her friends. "I have to go get ready for class, myself. Let me know if you learn anything. See you guys tonight!"

"Yeah, later Akane," Ranma said, waving off her fiance as she left the dorm.

Once she was gone, Ranma and Ryoga shared a look before both getting out of their seats and marching up the stairs towards Kaname's room.

They knocked and waited a moment, but no one came. They tried again, and after no response, they tried opening the door but it was locked.

"I guess he's not here," Ryoga said quietly.

"Maybe he's trying to figure out what happened with his other vampire buddies," Ranma thought. "He's gotta know about this already."

"Yeah, you're probably right. He knows everything that goes on around here."

Supposing there was nothing to do until he returned, Ranma said, "We'll just have to find him sometime tonight. Wanna go spar before we hit the hay?"

"Yeah, sure, I could use to clear my head a bit," Ryoga agreed.

* * *

After a full day's rest, the afternoon alarms rang throughout the dorm signaling that it was time to do it all again. Ranma woke with a stretch and a yawn, got a quick shower, finished with a cold wake-up splash, and dressed like normal while Ryoga went in for his morning wash.

The daily ritual was finally starting to become a routine.

Together, the two headed towards the cafe for a light breakfast and their morning drink before following the others outside into the beautiful orange skies of twilight.

There was definitely a chill in the air and like many of the others, Ranma thought to wear a scarf around her neck. A simple one, but enough to make a few guys pause when they saw how cute it looked on her petite frame.

Of course Ryoga noticed too, but he wouldn't dare say anything. Unlike the Saotomes, he wasn't used to a fight right after waking up.

They stepped out the gate to the usual adoring fans, Ryoga doing his best to ignore them and Ranma sneering the whole while, but today, something was different.

Today, Akane was running up to her without being blocked by Yuki and Zero.

And she had tears in her eyes.

"Ranmaaa!" she cried, throwing her arms around Ranma's neck, causing her to blush in surprise.

"Woah, Akane! Calm down! What's wrong?"

"It's, it's-" she started through sniffles. "It's Rei, she's gone missing too! Nobody's seen her since yesterday! She wasn't in class, and, and-"

"Rei? Rei who?" Ranma asked, confused.

"Your roommate Rei?" Yuki asked, joining the girls with a look of sympathy on her face as she patted Akane's back. "I'm so sorry."

"Yuki, does your dad know anything about what happened?" Ryoga asked, turning back to rejoin the girls when he noticed Ranma wasn't walking next to him anymore. "Does Kaname know what's going on?"

Yuki looked up at him but shied her eyes away at the mention of Kaname. "Yes, the headmaster's asking some... _friends_ about it, and I'm sure Kaname knows as well."

"Well, are there any leads or anything?" Ranma asked, still trying to console her distraught fiance and pretending not to notice that several people were staring at the scene.

"Well, I..." Yuki began, but soon broke eye contact from Ranma and began looking at the random bystanders watching the scene.

'_Is she hiding something?_' Ranma thought.

"I don't think they have any leads yet, but there seems to be a pattern," Yuki said, turning back to face Ranma. "From what I heard from the hunter's guild, every girl who went missing has been somewhat short and had dark brown or red hair, always tied up in a ponytail or braid or something."

All eyes were on Ranma and she met each one of them in turn. "Why are you all lookin' at me, for? It's not like _I'm_ a girl who's short and has..." her heart sank. "...dark red hair... in a braid..."

All of the victims looked like her. This couldn't be a coincidence.

"Do you think it's the woman who sired us?" Ryoga asked sternly.

Ranma slowly nodded and Akane tightened her grip around her fiance's neck. "It sounds like she's trying to hunt me down again."

"Try not to worry too much," Yuki said, trying to ease their worry. "I'm sure you're perfectly safe while you're around the other night class students. Especially Kaname."

Ranma reached up to her signature pigtail and pulled off the hair tie, sliding it onto her wrist in one smooth motion and letting her hair hang free.

"Hate to break it to ya but Kaname's not around," she said, combing through her hair with her fingers. "Haven't seen him since yesterday."

Yuki's eyes went wide with a brief panic but she quickly controlled herself. "I-I'm sure he'll return soon. You guys should probably get to class though. Sorry for holding you up."

Akane finally let go and pulled herself back, still a bit sniffley. "Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to make you late."

"It's ok, Akane," Ryoga said, trying to reassure her. "This is far more important. Thank you for letting us know."

"He's right. School can wait," Ranma added. "Stay with Yuki, ok? I'll be fine. I can fend for myself."

"And I've got a bone to pick with that bitch too, so she wouldn't dare come after us together," Ryoga said with a confident smirk.

Yuki nodded and offered to take Akane back to the dorm with her and Ranma and Ryoga jogged along towards the school building, hoping to make it to class in time.

Ryoga couldn't help but notice how nice Ranma's red hair looked flowing over her light blue scarf and her white uniform blazer. He was almost mezmerised by each gentle strand as it swayed over her snow-white shoulders. He didn't even notice he had slowed down and been staring at her.

She glanced back with a blush on her face, realizing he was staring at her, but she didn't know why. "C'mon, bacon brains! We're already running late!"

"Huh?" Ryoga mumbled, snapping back to reality. "Oh, right, sorry!" he called, jogging faster to catch up.

Once they were inside the classroom, they finally slowed down, noticing that the teacher wasn't there yet. They still had time.

Before they took their seats, Ranma pulled at Ryoga's sleeve to stop him.

He turned back and looked down into those beautiful lavender eyes, admiring how her loose hair gave her a totally different impression. She looked less like the tomboyish boy-reluctantly-turned-girl and more like a genuine beauty who normally wouldn't give him the time of day. He had to mentally slap himself to remember that this was his friend, the jerk of a guy named Ranma, not some beautiful young woman standing before him.

When she looked this way and looked at him with those eyes, those paralyzing eyes, it was so hard to remember what Ranma was like for that hour or so a day that he saw 'him'.

"Ryoga, you don't have to worry about me, got it?" she said, thinking that was why he had fallen behind. "Even if she did find me here, she won't get me again. I know what I'm up against now."

"And you have me here, too," Ryoga added. "Save some revenge for me, alright?"

Ranma couldn't help but laugh. "You and your 'revenges'. Don't you still have a revenge against me to take care of?" she playfully asked, taking her normal seat next to him.

"Nah, in a way, I've already gotten it," he said with a smirk, taking his own seat.

"Oh yeah? How do ya figure that?" she asked, expecting a teasing answer, but not expecting the one she got.

"Let's see... I don't really get lost anymore, I'm back in school for the first time in years, my mom is at home waiting for me, and I barely spend any time transformed because I have a roof over my head and a nice warm bed every night. I'm not camping in the wilderness, fearing every puddle and rainstorm anymore. I'm genuinely happy." He had the brightest smile letting all that out.

But Ranma was a bit confused. "I'm happy you're happy I guess, but how is that a revenge against me?"

"Simple," he started. "I'm happy, and you're not. It seems everything that's brought me happiness in the last month or two has just made you miserable. For all the good that's happened to me since I was bitten, you've only had it worse and worse to the point where you can hardly stand to be in your normal form for even an hour. You're more or less stuck as a girl and I'm doing great. I finally stole your happiness, just like I promised a couple years ago."

He said it with a tease hoping that after all they'd been through, she'd at least find a little humor in that, but it backfired. Being reminded of her situation only made Ranma sink into her seat with worry written all over her face. She felt the welling up of emotion that led her to cry into Ryoga's chest a few nights back, but this time without the comfort of knowing he was on her side.

"Gee, thanks. You really know how to make a guy feel like shit, Ryoga," she quietly muttered. "Good to know you're taking pleasure in my pain. And here I thought we were friends."

Ryoga's playful smile disappeared in a flash when he saw that she looked like she was about to cry. "I'm sorry, Ranma, I was just messing with you. I didn't mean it seriously."

"But it's still true. You're doing great and my life's completely fallen apart. For all I know, my mom's gonna kill me when she finds out I have to spend most of my life as a girl," she sniffed.

"Hey, it's not all bad," Ryoga said, reaching over to pat her on the shoulder. "You're still the prettiest girl in school," he said with a smile, hoping to cheer her up with his half-serious joke, but he didn't get the reaction he wanted.

She shot up out of her seat and scowled at him, looking ready to punch him, but in a huff she just grabbed her books and went to go sit by Keiko again.

"I'm just gonna sit here with you again today. And tomorrow. And forever," she said, plopping down in a seat next to her casual friend who looked between her and Ryoga and back with concern.

"Did you two have a fight or something?" she asked as gently as she could.

"Heh, not exactly. I just found out how he really feels about me is all," Ranma said in a huff, her voice a little shaky.

"Oooh, I'm sorry honey, I know how that goes. It's hard when you don't share their feelings," she said, throwing an arm around her friend in support. Having missed the conversation entirely, she was only left to infer that Ryoga had confessed his love and she didn't feel the same way in return. What else would she think?

Ranma was surprised at the contact, not expecting a hug from the girl. "I-I thought we were friends, but I guess not. Even after everything we've been through, I guess we can't be friends afterall."

"That's how these things go," Keiko said, releasing her small friend. "If you want, you can stay in my room for a while. I've been bunking solo since I transferred here."

Ranma thought about it for a moment and glanced back at Ryoga who was looking at her with guilt written all over his face and for some reason, she felt a tinge of guilt herself. "You know what? Yeah, I think I will. Thank you."

"Any time, chica," she said with a smile.

* * *

When class was over the following morning, Ranma didn't guide Ryoga back to the dorm. She stalked ahead, nearly dragging Keiko by the wrist, to avoid him and gather some clothes before he got back.

He was worried for a moment that he wouldn't make it back to the dorm safely, but he followed the group of students and made it no problem. By the time he got there though, Ranma had already gone. Her dresser had a few of the drawers still pulled out and her pillow was missing.

"Damn, I really screwed up," Ryoga muttered to himself, clenching a fist. "Why did I even say that? Of course she'd feel like shit! Stupid, _stupid _!"

Ryoga was getting more and more angry at himself and thought he should find a way to calm down. He thought maybe his thirst was just making it worse. He went to the bathroom to fetch a glass and popped a tablet in. He watched it fizz as the water darkened to a blood-like shade, yet still transluscent, like raspberry tea.

He took a slow drink and then a deep breath, trying to calm his mind, but he couldn't. Even the color of the drink reminded him of her hair and brought his guilt down even lower, low enough to trigger his depression ki. It began swirling slowly around his body with its green and purple aura.

He couldn't take it anymore.

In a fit of rage and tears, he chucked the glass against the wall as hard as he could, shattering it into a million pieces and spraying the dark red water everywhere.

* * *

"Woah, that was amazing!" Keiko applauded from her cross-legged seat on her bed. "What do you call that dance?"

Ranma scoffed, plopping down onto her own bed. "It's not a dance, it's a martial arts routine. I use it to meditate and keep up my forms. I guess it's like a martial arts dance, in a way," she explained.

"That's amazing, I didn't know you were a fighter!" Keiko exclaimed. "I mean, I've seen your brother and Ryoga fight a lot out behind the dorm building but I didn't know you were into that too."

"Heh, yeah..." Ranma sighed, looking down to the floor and pulling a knee up. "We spar a lot. It's a great way to stay on top of your game, and relieve some stress too."

"Really? You fight Ryoga too?" Keiko asked, surprised that he would dare hit a girl, even if she WAS a martial artist.

"Oh, all the time. Me and Ryoga go way back," Ranma said.

"How far back? When did you meet?"

"It was back in middle school... geez, it's hard to believe that was almost four years ago..." she realized.

"Four years, really? All this time and you've never had any interest in him?" Keiko asked. She had no idea what kind of history they had together, but thought it was pretty weird for a guy and a girl to be living together despite not being a couple, especially after a history like that.

"Huh? Oh no, I do, he's a great fighter and all," Ranma explained, completely missing what Keiko was inferring. "He's the only one on my level that can actually give me a challenge. If anything, I used to wish he was around more often! That is, before we became vampires and all..." she trailed off.

"You're not pure-bloods?" Keiko asked with a gasp. "I seriously thought you were!"

Ranma let out a soft chuckle. "I guess HE is, but the jury's still out on me. Kaname's looking into it. Special situation and all that."

"You've got to let me know when you get it all figured out, your whole situation is so confusing."

"Heh, I'll let you know when I know, I guess," she answered with a shrug.

"You'd better," Keiko all but demanded. "So four years, huh? And he's never shown any interest in you until now?"

"Huh?" Ranma said, confused. "He's been after me this whole time! He even followed me to China and back."

"Really? He sounds very commited to you," Keiko said almost dreamily. She was definitely jealous of having a guy that interested in her and to go to such lengths to be with her, but she figured that if she didn't like him back, that kind of behavior was probably more scary than romantic.

"Completely commited," Ranma said bluntly, recalling all of the times Ryoga shouted 'prepare to die!' and popped out of complete nowhere to attack her, even in the middle of the night. "If I didn't look forward to the fight he brought, I'd call him obsessed. Or at least, he used to be. He's really calmed down in the last year or two."

"It sounds like he really likes you and you like being around him, so why not give him a shot?" Keiko asked in her blissful ignorance.

"_Likes_ me?! He's tried to _KILL_ me!," Ranma nearly shouted. "He absolutely hates my guts and takes pleasure in my pain, he told me so in class. I thought we were past this and to the point of being friends. Hell, I thought we were practically family with all we've been through, and then he goes and says something like that. He hates me," Ranma explained with tears threatening again. '_I really am spending too much time as a girl, this estrogen is really starting to mess with my emotions!_' she thought.

"That can't be right, a guy can't follow you to another country and back and then live with you like this and still hate you. You two always seem so close," Keiko said.

"Trust me, he would rather see me dead," Ranma spat.

"So I guess I had it backwards, you like _him_, is that it?" Keiko offered gently. This wasn't a time to tease the shorter girl, she was clearly too upset by all of this.

"Well yeah, like I said, he's almost like family. It just hurts knowing that even after living together at the school, he still likes to see me suffer. I feel so betrayed by that, y'know? Like nothing we've been through together even mattered to him."

"I think I do, Ranko. I just can't help but think that maybe he just said that to get your attention or rile you up. What exactly did he say that got you so mad?" Keiko asked.

"He basically said he's never been happier because I've never been more miserable, and then he called me beautiful just to twist that knife in my back a little harder."

"Eh? He complimented you? In the same breath?" Keiko said, taken aback.

"Yeah. Oh, I should probably explain that, he said that to piss me off because I was teasing him about giving him a song at the dance. Long story," she shyly explained, rubbing the back of her head.

"Sounds to me like he likes you too but he's too shy to say it right," Keiko said, finally realizing what she thought was the root of the problem. Ryoga was just too shy to admit he was in love with Ranko and Ranko hasn't realized that the feelings she has for him are love as well.

Of course, Ranma took that differently.

"Y'think so?" Ranma asked, thinking about it for a moment. She supposed he COULD have just been riling her up. They tease and mock each other for fun constantly, it's just how they get along. "I guess he just went too far or somethin'."

"Guys tend to have foot in mouth disease a lot around pretty girls," Keiko said with a laugh that just confused Ranma, but she didn't want to probe too far.

"Yeah, I hear that a lot actually," Ranma said before glancing at the clock. "Oh wow, it's almost eight, we should get to bed."

"You're right! I didn't even notice!" Keiko said, glancing over to the window and noticing a little bit of sunlight bleeding through from the edges of the heavy curtain.

They both tucked in and settled down for the day, and Ranma turned to face her new friend. "Thank you for listening to me. And giving me a place to cool off. I really appreciate it, Keiko."

Keiko just smiled at the smaller girl. "No problemo, chica. I just hope I was able to help a bit. Talk things out with him, I'm sure it'll work out."

"I think you're right. G'night, Keiko."

"Good night, Ranko."

"Oh, you can call me Ranma. It's my given name, afterall," she offered.

"Same as your brother? Really? That's twins for ya, I suppose," Keiko said with a laugh. "Goodnight then, Ranma."

'_Keiko's a nice girl and all, but man, sometimes I feel like we're having two different conversations_,' Ranma thought as she dozed off.

* * *

The next evening, Ranma was hoping to run into Ryoga and chat before class began, but he was nowhere to be found. Class came and went and he still hadn't shown up.

'_And here I thought his sense of direction was getting better!_'

After class, Ranma waited for Akane in the lobby for their usual morning snack and even she hadn't heard anything. According to Akane, Ranma was the last person to see Ryoga, and there had been no updates on the missing girls or even Kaname.

"Have you tried asking your dorm's vice president?" Akane offered but Ranma had already thought of that.

"He just said he's away. No idea when he'll be back. And he doesn't have anything to share on the missing people, either. At least Kaname seems to be _intentionally_ missing," Ranma said.

The next class came and went and there was still no sign of Ryoga anywhere. The cafe's kitchen staff hadn't seen him come down for food or a drink, and room service wouldn't be there for another couple of days so the cleaning staff hadn't seen him either.

Finally, seeing no other options, Ranma did what she didn't want to do: she decided to check their room.

She had been afraid of confronting Ryoga over what he had said, and what their friendship meant to each other. Did he really truly live to see her suffer? He couldn't, she surmised. Not after every adventure they'd been on. Not after teaming up to beat Herb. Ryoga nearly died making sure that the open-water kettle survived long enough for Ranma to use it. Why would he go through that only to take pleasure in her pain? No, this must have been a misunderstanding. Still, she didn't quite feel ready to see him face to face, but her worry was bleeding over to Akane and if Akane was worried, she'd better well do something about it. At least, that's the excuse she was telling herself.

Ranma took a deep breath and knocked on the door, hearing the sound quietly echo through it.

No response.

She tried again and with a shaky voice she announced, "Ryoga, I'm coming in, ok?" and she slowly opened the door.

What she found was red-stained sheets on Ryoga's bed and shards of glass scattered about.

"Geez, what happened?" Ranma pondered aloud.

She kept walking through the small apartment seeing signs of struggle throughout. Scraches through the drapes near the window latch. Scratches at the door leading to the hall. Torn bedding.

Ranma followed the trail of destruction to the bathroom where she found a small black piglet collapsed just in front of the closed shower door, with deep scratches on the glass.

Ranma instantly slid to her knees and scooped the piglet up, checking his vital signs. He was breathing, but he was cold. Very cold.

"Hey, Ryoga! Wake up!"

Nothing.

Panic started to set in. She reached for a glass and ran the hot water tap to splash the piglet, returning Ryoga to his human form, but he was still out cold and very pale.

But he was breathing and had a pulse.

"_Shit_, come on, buddy! You can't die on me now, not like this!" Ranma shouted, trying to wake him, but nothing worked. She slapped him, used more hot water, and finally decided to try a blood tablet shoved right into his mouth.

He chewed and moaned a little and slowly, his eyes opened to the sight of a very relieved ginger girl.

"Ryoga! Say something! Come on, say something!" she pleaded but he couldn't move. He could still barely breathe. All he could do was watch helplessly while she panicked.

Running out of ideas, Ranma finally settled on the one thing she was sure would work. She got up and ran back to the main room and grabbed a shard of glass and ran back to the bathroom.

She took a deep breath and braced for the pain.

She winced as she quickly sliced her wrist open, narrowly missing the vein but accomplishing her goal nonetheless. Blood rapidly seeped from her self-inflicted wound and she held it up to him, right to his mouth.

"C'mon, drink! It'll help, I'm sure!" she begged.

At the smell of her blood, Ryoga perked up instantly. Suddenly his black eyes shone red and with no hesitation at all, he bore his fangs and clamped his mouth down around her wrist, soaking it all in.

The blackness started to fade and return to green and the red glow subsided when he finally pulled away.

"I'm glad you're back in the land of the living," Ranma said, whipping a bandana off the boy's head and using it to wrap her wound, but he didn't say anything.

He just bore his eyes deep into hers and without a word, he pounced, pinning her to the floor and sinking his teeth deep into her neck.

Ranma let out a small cry of pain and wanted to push him off, but she felt weak and her arms fell limp to her sides.

And then everything changed when the pleasure kicked in.

Being bitten by Ryoga felt a hundred times better than her sire. She was lost in the ecstacy of the moment, feeling every muscle twitch and calm, and even a sense of arrousal deep within her core. Her blood was pumping fast with her heart beating a mile a minute, savoring the pleasure that Ryoga's bite brought to her body.

Gently, she managed to lift her hand to caress the nape of his neck, feeling his body pressing down on hers, the contact sending electric shocks through her system with every pulse.

She wanted nothing more than to wrap her legs around his and hold him close, hoping the feeling would never end, but she could barely move a muscle.

Even her vision was starting to fade before he finally pulled back and whispered her name.

"Ranma? Are... you ok?" he gently asked.

"Don't... stop..." she whimpered before her eyes fluttered open and reality began to set in once more. "Ryoga? You're alright."

"Yeah, thanks to you. Are you ok? I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked, grabbing her by the waist and a shoulder and helping to prop her up against the wall.

"I'm... tired, but I'm doing great. Better than great! What _was_ that?" she asked dreamily, with a soft smile growing on her face.

"I... dont know, but every time I'm bit, I get this rush of pleasure," he admitted. "I get this intense feeling through my whole body and once, I even got a little... turned on by it..." Ryoga trailed off, blushing at the memory of Ranma's bite. The last thing he ever wanted to admit to her was that she did that to him when she bit him.

It was then that Ryoga realized he was naked and quickly grabbed a towel to cover up. He was embarrassed by it, but she didn't even seem to notice. She was still staring off into the distance with a wide grin and lightly humming to herself. "Was this your first time? Since we were turned, I mean."

"Yeah, and it was so much better than I ever dreamed it would be. We should do that again sometime," she asked, still not even looking at him.

"Heh, maybe some other time," Ryoga shrugged. She was acting like she was drunk or something, so he didn't pay much mind to her request. "Thank you, Ranma. You saved my life."

"Hmmm... It's a martial artist's duty to protect the weak," she managed to whisper out with a soft chuckle.

A few minutes later, they found themselves sitting on their beds facing each other, Ranma nursing her neck wound with a bandana and Ryoga looking very guilty and avoiding eye contact with her.

"I'm so sorry I bit you like that," he eventually blurted out. "I lost control, and I just, I just couldn't-"

"It's fine," Ranma said, cutting him off. Her voice was very soft, like she was very tired, but she still felt amazing. "Your life depended on it, I'd do it again if I had to. Especially if it leads to this... man, this feeling could be addictive..."

Ryoga finally looked up to meet her with those guilty eyes. "Thank you. I know I don't deserve it."

"So tell me," she began. "You don't _really_ get off on my misery, do you?" In her relaxed state, she had no hesitation in asking what had been on her mind for days and days.

"Of course not!" Ryoga shouted, rising to his feet. "I-I was just poking fun at how I used to be, y'know? I've really changed a lot since then."

He digressed, sitting back down and hanging his head in shame once more.

"I just said it to tease you but I guess it was kinda over the line. I'm sorry. This must all be affecting you more than I thought," he acknowledged.

Ranma felt bad for acting the way she had. She figured he was probably just messing around, but she still took it very hard. At least his apology felt genuine. He truly didn't mean anything malicious by it, it seemed.

Ranma sighed and met his eyes with a gentle smile. "I may have overreacted a bit. Too much has changed in such a short time, and like you said, I'm basically stuck like this now. I can't even be a guy for an hour without the cravings killing me." She let out an incredulous laugh at her own misfortune. "I might as well just beg Herb for the ladle at this point and get it over with."

"And that would mean I died and came back for nothing!" Ryoga shouted, genuinely angry. He risked his life for that stupid open-water kettle and he'd be damned if Ranma would throw away his sacrifice like that.

"Woah, calm down, I'm just jokin', of course I wouldn't want that," she explained.

"Well don't joke about that. I know you hate being a girl, but you don't have to act like this is the end of your manhood."

"Heh, it's not _all_ bad," she started, thinking out loud. "At least I'm still human. I just hate being short and having guys ask me out, and I hate how my family treats me as a girl. It seems like we're never gonna find a cure and Pops doesn't seem to even care to look! Sometimes I think I'll be stuck with the curse forever, and now that I'm basically stuck like _this_ until we find a cure for the vampire thing, it's just got me thinkin' about it is all. Cut out the middle man. At least being short can help in a fight."

Of course, this was her vampire high speaking. If she hadn't just been bit, she doubted she would ever admit that she was coming to terms with it. The relaxation definitely helped.

Ryoga couldn't believe what he was hearing, but couldn't deny that it was a possibility. "But what happens if we're stuck as vampires for life? Do you really think you can live like this, as a shadow of a man?"

She just shrugged. "Seems the universe is out ta get me, pal. At least I ended up pretty, right?" she said with a laugh.

"I promise I'll never call you pretty again," Ryoga said with a smirk.

Ranma let out another hearty laugh. "Sounds like a deal, man."

Ranma stood and stretched with her free arm and nearly stumbled in the process. Ryoga stood, quick to catch her if she fell, but she held up her hand to stop him and managed to catch her balance.

"Guess I'm still a bit woozy. You really gorged yourself there, didn't ya piggy?" she smirked.

Ryoga glared and then turned away. "I said I was sorry, you jerk."

"Glad to see you're back to normal," she said with a light chuckle in her voice. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up. We've still got class tonight."

Ranma made her way to the bathroom once again and looked herself over in the mirror. She had dried blood streaking down her arm and staining the collar on her red silk shirt, and there was even some matted in her hair. Her hair that she's kept down to throw off her stalker should she be found. She also looked very pale, but seemed to be nothing but smiles. Why couldn't she stop smiling?

"Well, whatever. I should get a drink before I clean up anyway, might help," she said aloud to herself.

Gently she removed the wadded-up bandana from her neck and noted that the wound was still there, but it had finally stopped bleeding. Sure looked pretty nasty, though. Quickly, she whipped up her artificial blood concoction and slammed it down before stripping and heading for the shower. She remembered she'd have to go back to Keiko's place to get her uniform after this. There'd be no way to hide that she was bit.

But as she turned on the water, she decided she didn't care. She still felt too warm and fuzzy from the experience. She almost didn't notice that the hot water had failed to change her back.

When she realized she hadn't changed, Ranma froze and took stock of the situation. "I-it has to be because I was just bit, right?" she argued with herself. That made sense to her. The only other time she'd been bitten was when she was sired, and as far as she knew, she was a girl for about four days afterwards until she was able to make it back to the furo at the Tendo's. She also changed to a girl whenever anyone drank her blood, so maybe it was just a side effect? It should wear off, right?

Ranma looked down to watch the water cascade down her body, breaking up the dried blood and taking it along for a ride. '_I haven't bathed as a girl since Herb locked me_,' she idly thought. '_May as well enjoy it. Who knows when it will happen again_.'

She took her sweet time in the shower, just enjoying the warm glow she felt all over her body and down to her heart. Right now, it seemed like nothing could phase her.

After she got out and started drying off, she noticed that her neck wound had started to ooze again. "Damn, must have been from the water," she speculated. Digging in the counter drawers she found a first aid kit that every room seemed to have come with and wrapped some gauze around her neck, and just for caution, she wrapped some around her wrist wound as well. As a vampire, she knew her already quick healing abilities had only improved, but for the moment, she'd rather not have to clean it all off again.

* * *

Luckily Keiko wasn't around when Ranma returned to her room for her things, so she quickly packed up and brought them back to the room she shared with Ryoga and got dressed for school while he was in the shower.

It seemed like everything was going back to its normal routine.

She checked herself in a mirror after she was dressed and realized her bandages definitely stood out so she began to think about ways she might fix this when she noticed something in the reflection. In it, she could see a clean bandana sticking out of the top drawer of Ryoga's dresser.

Ranma turned around and looked in the drawer, seeing dozens of bandanas piled in it. "Geez man, how many bandanas do you need?" she asked herself.

"Enough to be prepared for anything," Ryoga said from behind, making Ranma jump in surprise. He stood there wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

Ranma couldn't help but notice that he was looking a lot better. Color had returned to his face and he seemed as strong as ever, still somehow maintaining all those muscles, and...

"What, is there something on me?" Ryoga asked, calling out Ranma's staring.

Ranma jumped again, having not realized she had been staring at his chest for a good twenty seconds in silence. "Oh! I, uh, just... I'm gonna borrow one of these, k?" she blurted out, snatching one and rushing back to her side of the room. She just hoped he didn't notice the embarrassed look on her face. '_Why was I staring at him like that? I didn't even notice!_'

* * *

Together, they left for class, with Ranma covering her neck with her scarf and the bandana tied nicely around her wrist, folded over to look like a style choice rather than a bandage.

Outside the gates they ran into Akane, who was glad to see Ryoga was safe and sound.

"I just, ah, got lost again. You know how that goes," Ryoga lied, rubbing the back of his head. He didn't want Akane to know her pet pig was trapped in a room and dying from lack of blood.

Even Yuki seemed glad that he was alright. It was her job to make sure the students were safe, afterall. With all of the people going missing lately and the incident last week in town, anything could have happened to him, so she was glad to see he was alright and looked no worse for wear.

When they arrived in the classroom, Ranma still had the goofy smile on her face as she sat down and removed her scarf, but the buzz was just starting to fade.

It didn't take long to notice that some of the girls in class were looking at them and giggling amongst themselves. Ranma quirked a brow and was about to ask what was so funny when Keiko made her way over with a cheshire grin.

"So I see you two have made up. You're positively glowing, Ranma~!" she cooed.

"Huh? How did you know we patched things up?" Ranma asked.

"Your vampire hickey is a dead giveaway," Keiko said with a wink, pointing out Ranma's bandage.

Instinctively, her hand went to her neck and she blushed at the accusation. "H-he was desparate! He looked like he was gonna die if he didn't drink real blood!"

"Sure, honey, _suuure_," Keiko said while a few of the girls nearby laughed. "Since you're sitting together and sharing blood and all, I take it you'll be going to the dance afterall?"

"I still have that dress if you want, Ranko," Rima called from a few seats away.

This was all too much for Ranma and she buried her face in her arms on the table to try and hide from her embarrassing torment. "Just kill me now," she muttered from her muffled arms.

* * *

A week and a half later, the night had finally arrived and the entire school was abuzz with excitement.

Ranma, in his male form and a rather big suit, was having his tie adjusted by Akane who was wearing a sensible midnight blue gown with a matching coat and heels.

It was the first time in two weeks that Ranma had spent more than a few short minutes as a guy. He couldn't even sleep as a guy anymore without having to get up and drink all the time, so he'd resigned to staying as a girl just for the convenience of not having massive cravings throughout the night.

This was also the first time day class students would see the Ranma they knew since that fateful event nearly a month before.

"How are we gonna explain where I've been, Akane?" Ranma asked, fidgeting with the cuffs of his blazer.

"We'll think of something," she responded with a smile, satisfied at her ability to tie a tie. "How about we say that you just transferred away?"

"Then why would my 'sister' still be here? Or my fiance?"

"Hmm... good point. Oh, I know! A training trip! You've been on a training trip!" Akane exclaimed.

Ranma cracked a smile. "It's worked before, it just might work again! You're a genius, Akane."

"And don't you forget it, Saotome!" she said, dramatically pointing a gloved finger in his face. "Well then, shall we?"

Ranma hooked his arm for her to take, which she gladly did. "Let's do this thing."

They arrived to an elaborately decorated ballroom with dangling lights twinkling away and a live string orchestra playing classical tunes. The floor was filled with couples in expensive looking dresses and suits, swaying along to the music while two fountains of punch on opposite walls shot their drink high into the air in dramatic spouts, one for the day class and one for the night.

As they walked in and Akane marvelled at the lights and glittery snowflakes hanging from long strands of garland hung from each side of the second floor's balcony, Ranma couldn't help but notice two boys being pushed away from the night class fountain by two of the larger night class students.

"C'mon, man! Punch is punch! What's so special that we can't have some of yours huh?" one of the boys sneered.

"It's just how it is, you know we don't make the rules," the night class student lied. Obviously, the punch was laced with the artificial blood tablets the whole class relied on, but he couldn't let the day class students know that.

"Well it's a stupid rule and you're stupid for enforcing it!" the guy shouted.

Ranma sighed and decided to step in.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked, glowering at the day class students, the loud one in particular.

"No problem," he started before he recognized who was in front of him. "Saotome? Man, where ya been? We haven't seen ya in forever!"

"Let's just say I've been on a training trip." Ranma noticed one of the night class guys lean into the other's ear and whisper something, and they both shared a look with Ranma and walked away into the crowd. Clearly, they knew about him.

"Heeeey, check it out! The jerks are gone! You're good luck, Saotome!" one of the guys said, heading over to the punch bowl and filling a cup. On the count of three, the two boys lifted their cups and almost instantly spat the nasty liquid back out.

"Ugg, what is this? It's all metallic and gross," one said.

"Yeah, it totally needs to be kicked up a notch," the other said, sneakily pulling out a bottle of whiskey from beneath his coat.

"Hey, you guys shouldn't do that," Akane said, but they weren't listening. They were already pouring a good portion of the bottle into the fountain. "Ranma, shouldn't we do something? Shouldn't we tell someone?"

Ranma looked around and even up to the balcony and realized he couldn't see a single adult. No teachers, no chaperones. Wasn't there supposed to be at least one at these things?

"I don't see anyone... Hey, guys, knock it off," he said, addressing the two boys.

They froze at the threatening tone coming from Ranma but the one with the bottle simply smiled. "My job here is done anyway. Next up is our punch bowl. Coming, Kudo?" he asked his buddy, the loud one.

"Yeah, right behind ya. Later, Saotome!" he said, patting Ranma's shoulder as they walked past.

"Ranma, shouldn't we do something?" Akane asked again, worry in her voice.

"If we see someone, we'll let them know. For now, just avoid the punch alright?" he responded and dragged her by the wrist to the dance floor.

With a tinge of red on her cheeks, she took his hand while another found its way to her waist and they began moving in time to the music.

"A-are you sure? Without that punch, are you going to be alright?" Akane asked her fiancee.

"I'll be fine, I'll just go to the bathroom when the time comes," he replied. "Don't worry about it."

Akane wasn't sure she was ready to let it go but she wanted to enjoy the evening best she could. She rarely got to see Ranma as a guy anymore and she was starting to worry about their relationship as a whole. This vampire thing seemed to be getting in the way. But then again, she thought about how the relationship hadn't gone anywhere to begin with. Yeah, they obviously enjoyed each others' company, but the wedding attempt had failed and they'd never actually dated before. This dance was the closest thing to a date they'd ever had, but even then, she couldn't shake the feeling that they only went together out of obligation.

Did she love him? She thought maybe she did, especially after he went to such effort to save her life from the bird people in Jusendo, but they'd still never had any romantic moments together. Just a lot of near misses. Even a night like tonight with the magic the setting brought was laced with worry over Ranma's cravings and now the dangers of drinking the punch.

It seemed like every time they almost got close to something romantic, something got in the way.

And yet here they were, all dressed up and dancing at a formal ball. Something Akane had dreamed about but never thought would actually happen. It was like a fairy tale. And she was determined to enjoy it.

Several songs and one bathroom drink for Ranma later, a slower tune had begun to play and Akane put her arms over Ranma's head.

This was the moment for Akane to find out how Ranma actually felt about her. Did he want to actually get married someday? She thought if he actually wanted to, that she'd be able to go through with it, but there had to be something between them. Some spark. If they got married and Ranma never got cured, of either curse, could she live with the idea of sharing her life with another woman, only seeing her husband once in a while before he had to change and drink? What if he eventually devolved into a Level E? Could she handle living alone? Raising their child alone? She wasn't sure but she thought if they had just that one little spark between them, maybe she could see it through to the end.

"Ranma?" she said softly, lifting her eyes to meet his. "Ranma, will you... kiss me?"

"Huh?!" Ranma spazzed, losing the rythm and nearly tripping the both of them over. "K-k-kiss you? Here?"

That reaction didn't seem very promising to Akane. "Yes, right here, right now. You love me, don't you? You said it at Jusendo."

Ranma's face went completely red. "Y-you heard that? I thought you were unconscious!"

"So it's true, you _DID_ say it!" Akane smirked, having trapped Ranma with her bluff. "I wasn't sure before, but now I know. We're supposed to get married, so what's wrong with kissing me?"

"N-nothing's wrong, it's just, ah, what about you? Do you love _me_?" he deflected.

Akane sighed. "I... I think so. Maybe. At the very least, I'm willing to get married... if you are."

Ranma looked at his forced girlfriend with a tinge of pity. It seemed like she was having her own hangups about their unwanted relationship, too. "Akane, I-" he started, but then he stopped moving and his eyes shot to the open ballroom doors, staring out into the dark of night.

Akane was taken aback by the sudden stop. "Ranma, what's wrong? Do you need to drink or something?"

"It's... blood. Definitely blood. Wait here, I've gotta go check this out," he said. Without even looking at her, he slipped away from her arms and began pacing away towards the door, never averting his gaze.

Akane noticed several of the night class dancers had also stopped and were joining him towards the door.

"Wait up, I'm coming too!" she called, pulling up the hem of her long dress and trying her best to run and join them.

Outside, beyond the trees, she caught up to Ranma and the others to find Ryoga and Kaname carrying an unconscious girl towards the school. There was a gash in her neck and she was covered in blood.

"Rei!" she called, recognizing the girl as her roommate that'd been missing for nearly a month. She rushed over to take Rei's hand. It was cold as death, but the girl was breathing.

"Lord Kaname, what happened?" Ichijo asked when he arrived at the scene.

"I found her wandering the woods out near the moon dormatory. She's been bitten and it looks like she barely survived," Kaname explained.

"Ryoga, what are you doing here?" Ranma asked, turning his attention to his friend.

Ryoga rubbed the back of his head. "I found her at the same time Kaname did. I could smell the blood from up in our room and my danger senses were going crazy so I went to see what was up and when I got there, Kaname came out of nowhere to catch her as she collapsed."

"It seems like she just barely managed to get away from her attacker," Kaname added.

"Any sign of the attacker? All of the night students besides you and Ryoga were here at the ball, including Ranma," Ichijo reported.

Kaname just shook his head. "Afraid not. My best guess is that our little messenger is back on the hunt. I'll have a word with this girl when she wakes up. You all should head back to the dance and keep an eye on everyone. There's safety in numbers."

"Right, you heard him everyone. Let's go," Ichijo said as if her were commanding the troops. The dozen or so vampires who'd left the dance shared their grunts of dismay and worry and shuffled off, leaving just Kaname, Ryoga, Ranma, Akane, and poor Rei.

"Please, can I come with you to the infirmary?" Akane asked. "She's my roommate, I've been worried sick about her."

Kaname gave her a reassuring smile. "Of course. Actually, if you don't mind, would the three of you escort her there? I need to find Headmaster Cross and report this immediately."

Akane and Ryoga nodded in understanding and Kaname handed the girl off to Ryoga to carry all on his own.

They made it to the infirmary without incident and handed the girl off to a fretting nurse, who immediately put her in a bed and reached for an introveinous blood bag when they told her what happened. It's a good thing she had everyone's blood type on file.

Both Ranma and Ryoga watched carefully as the nurse hooked up the dripping bloodbag.

"I... think I need a drink..." Ranma slowly said, heading towards the nearby sink and dunking his head in the water. She fished two tablets from her pocket and popped them right in her mouth, sipping some water from the faucet to swallow them.

"Me too, hit me up, Ranma," Ryoga asked. Ranma tossed him the tin and he did the same, being very careful not to accidentally splash himself.

"Aaaah, that's better," Ranma sighed. "It's so hard to resist when it's right in front of you like that."

The nurse had left to another room, leaving the trio to watch the sickly looking girl slowly breath up and down. Ranma couldn't help but notice her hair was in a voluminous braid, and landed on the brighter side of red.

"You're right, she does kinda look like me," she acknowledged.

"It's scary knowing that your sire's here looking for you," Akane said, a shutter of fear going through her body. "Ranma, do you mind if I wait here with her?" she asked with pleading eyes.

"Are you sure you're ok with missing the rest of the dance?" Ranma asked, surprised Akane would propose that.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I've been so worried about her that I want to make sure she's ok," Akane said, looking back to the bedridden girl.

"Alright then, I'll leave you to it. I gotta walk this guy back to the dorm anyway," she said, thumbing in Ryoga's direction.

"I'm... sorry about the dance," Akane said, tilting her head down.

"Don't worry about it, it's not your fault this happened," Ranma assured her. "If anything, it's mine. I'm sorry you'll be missing out the rest of the dance."

"Don't be," Akane said, turning up to face Ranma with a cheery smile she was sure was fake. "I had a great time."

"Me too," Ranma said for Akane's sake, unsure if she was lying or not. "Guess I'll see ya tomorrow, then?" Ranma asked, not wanting to call Akane's bluff. She had a feeling that Akane wanted to be left alone.

"Yeah, see ya. Goodnight, you two," Akane said, turning back to Rei and taking her cold hand once more.

"Take care, Akane," Ryoga said as they both waved their goodbyes and walked out the door.

"Every damn time. Something always gets in the way," Akane muttered quietly to herself, a tear sliding down her cheek. "It's like we're not meant to be."

* * *

"You found her pretty quick, didn't ya?" Ranma asked as the duo walked back towards the moon dorm.

"I told you, I don't really get lost much anymore," Ryoga insisted.

"I guess I'm starting to believe it," Ranma said.

As the two passed the ballroom and saw the couples having a good time through the open doors and music spilled out into the cold night air, Ranma was hit with a double-whammy of guilt.

"I feel bad Akane had her night cut short. Girls love this sorta thing and she was really looking forward to it. And I'm sorry you didn't get to go," Ranma admitted as they passed by. "This whole thing is my fault."

Ryoga scoffed and sneered down at his shorter friend in her baggy suit. "I may have given up on Akane, but do you really think I want to watch you two have a romantic night together? The last thing I wanna do is stand against the wall all alone and watch you holding her and being happy together."

Ranma swallowed the lump in her throat. "Sorry man, I didn't realize how that'd be for you. I never thought about that."

"Exactly. And you never would. Let's just get back to the dorms," Ryoga said angrily, taking the lead and walking a little ahead of Ranma.

'_Seems like I've ruined everyone's night_,' Ranma thought.

"Ranma, is that you? What are you wearing?!" a voice called from behind.

Ranma stopped and turned around to find Keiko and Rima coming over to her.

"Oh, hey Kei, it's just um... a suit?" Ranma said, taking a look down at her outfit.

"I can see that," she deadpanned. "But why are _you_ wearing it and not him?"

Ranma looked over her shoulder to see that Ryoga had walked back when he realized Ranma wasn't with him anymore.

"Uh... it's kind of a long story," she said, rubbing the back of her head. She was drawing a blank on a good excuse.

"Come on, you can't be walking around on a night like this dressed like _that_," Keiko said, grabbing Ranma by the wrist and dragging her off to who knows where.

"And you're coming too, big guy," Rima said, grabbing Ryoga's wrist and dragging him along as well.

Twenty minutes later found Ranma and Ryoga back at the entrance to the ballroom, but this time in drastically different attire.

Ranma was wearing a light blue dress that ended at her knees and shimmered with what she assumed was silk in the ambient twinkling lights of the dance hall. She even had matching heels to bring her closer to Ryoga's height, though she was still a bit shorter. At Keiko's insistance, her hair was also tied into a french-braided bun, with a few curly locks dangling down to frame her face.

Ryoga was wearing Ranma's suit and struggling to keep it from bursting at the seams.

"This thing's too tight on me man," he complained, trying to gently stretch it a little.

"Well excuse me for being smaller than you," she deadpanned, dreading the scenario.

'_How did this even happen_?' she wondered.

"Just one dance for appearances, and we bail. Agreed?" she offered in a tone that wasn't accepting of alternatives.

"Agreed. Now nobody can give us crap for not going," Ryoga nodded. '_Damn those nosy girls..._'

Reluctantly, Ranma stuck out her hand for Ryoga to take which he reluctantly did, and they both made it out to the dance floor. They shared a look of indignation and when the music allowed, they jumped right in with their simple sways.

"You were right, I guess you _can_ dance afterall!," Ranma exclaimed, surprised at Ryoga's ability to keep the rythm and not trip over himself.

"Told ya," Ryoga sneered.

Finally when the music ended, they stopped and made their way to a lonely table. "I'm gonna get a drink before we head back, you want one?" Ryoga offered.

"Yeah, thanks. Our punch is on that side," she said, pointing the bowl out to her friend and taking her seat.

A moment later, he returned with two cups to find Ranma sitting with her legs a bit too wide apart and her shoes on the table.

She took her cup with a smile. "Hey, thanks. You weren't kidding about getting lost, either! You made it back in one piece! You are just full of surprises tonight."

Ryoga snorted and took his own seat next to her. "You should sit straight and put your shoes on, you look like trash in a fancy place like this. Were you raised by wolves or something?"

Ranma, suddenly aware of how she was sitting, snapped her knees together and began the process of putting her shoes back on. "Pandas, actually. Not my fault these shoes hurt like hell."

"Just don't make a scene, alright?" Ryoga said, looking around for prying eyes.

They sat at the table for a long while, finishing their drinks. Ryoga even went to grab a second round. They were having a good time chatting before they went back to the dorm.

Ranma had completely forgotten about the alcohol in the punch.

"Well, feels like we've been here forever, huh?" Ryoga asked, his cheeks tinging red from the drink. "We should prolly get goin', yeah?"

"Hmmm..." Ranma hummed, thinking it over. "How's about one more dance before we leave? Since we're here and all, and there's music and stuff, and all..." she smartly reasoned.

Slowly, Ryoga stood up and took her hand and they both went back to the dance floor.

"One more song and we go, right?" Ryoga asked.

"Totally," she answered with a brilliant smile.

Three songs and another round of drinks later, a slow song came on and Ranma was leaning heavily into Ryoga. In fairness, he also seemed to be leaning on her for support as well. Together, they gently shuffled to the sway of the song, missing the beats entirely but entirely not caring.

"Maaaaaaaaaaan, this sucks so much," Ryoga muttered out of nowhere.

"Hmm? Whassat?" Ranma asked.

"Here I am, all dressed up and dancing with a pretty girl, but it has to be _you_," Ryoga explained.

"Geez, you sound like Akane," Ranma muttered. "Sorry I'm not good 'nough for ya."

"You know what I mean," he scoffed. "I just wish I could be dancin' with a girl who liked me, y'know? This could be the happiest night of my life if not for you."

Ranma pulled her head back to look him in the eye with mock dismay. "Whaaa? I like you just fine!"

Ryoga quirked a brow, ready to tease Ranma with that, but the words escaped him.

When she got no response, Ranma just sighed and dropped her head back to his shoulder, closing her eyes once more.

"I get it, man. Shame you broke up with that Akari chick, though. She really loved you," she quietly said. "Akane thought you guys were gettin' pretty serious."

Now it was Ryoga's turn to sigh. "I haven't told Akane about the breakup yet. She wouldn't understand."

"Why _did_ you break up?" Ranma asked, even though she was pretty sure Ryoga had told her once before. "She loved you, man! Pig and all."

"That's just it, pig and all," Ryoga answered in a sad tone. "She liked me for that and because I was strong, but not for me as a person. She treated me like a pet, which I realized with Akane, isn't the kind of love I should want. I _should_ want someone who loves me for me, and who I am, not for that."

Ranma was surprised by such a mature and self-reflecting response from him. He'd clearly put a lot of thought into this breakup.

"And who is Ryoga Hibiki, hmm? The lost boy wonder!" she giggled, adding an unintentional little hiccup at the end.

"Hey, not anymore!" he cried in defense.

"Riiiight, right, Ryoga Hibiki is a traveling martial artist, always improving..." she said, matter of factly.

"...in the hopes of kicking your ass," he finished with a smirk.

"Which you never will," she said with a bright smile that made him let out a small laugh.

"I'm more than just a wandering fighter though. At least, I'd like to think so."

"You totally are, Ryo. You're my best friend," she said, nuzzling her face into his shoulder once agian. "I mean it, man. I'm glad it's you I'm stuck with in all this vampire nonsense." She raised her head again to look him in the eye. "If it were me and Akane, we'd have probably killed each other by now. But you? Even through all of this, even with being more or less forced to be a girl, you still treat me like _me_."

"Like I wanted from Akari," he absently commented.

"Exactly. I totally get what you mean. No matter what I look like or what body I'm in, you still treat me like me. You never ask me to be anything but strong enough to give you a challenge, which you know I gladly do."

It was definintely the alcohol loosening her up, but she didn't mind. She was glad they were finally able to talk like this. To be proper friends. Especially after their fight. Ranma leaned in, this time with a genuine hug that took Ryoga by surprise.

"You're the best friend I could have ever asked for, Ryoga. Fake girl or not, I really like having you around."

Ryoga's heart was beating wildly and it took him a moment to realize he had stopped swaying with the music. "Y'know, I think I do too. And not just because you saved my life the other day."

Ryoga was blushing hard and he knew it. His face was all hot and seemed to only be getting hotter. But why? Was it the beautiful girl in his arms, wearing a dashing blue dress and draped across his body? Or the way her hair framed that adorably soft face of hers? '_No, she's Ranma, you know better than that_,' he told himself. But why was she draped around him like this? Why was he holding her just as tight? This wasn't like either of them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the fountain spurting its bounty into the air and an idea hit him.

"Ran..." he quietly began, "I think someone spiked the punch."

"Why ya say that?" Ranma slurred, looking up at him with her alcohol-tinged cheeks.

Those adorable cheeks and those yearning lavender eyes seemed to draw him back in again. "Because you look stunning right now..." he softly said, before noticing her reaction. "Oh crap, did I say that out loud?!"

He pulled back, bracing for the inevitable fist in his face, but when it didn't come, he carefully opened one eye to see Ranma avoiding eye contact with him, completely flush in the face.

"Do... you really think so?" she asked shyly.

What happened to the firecracker his friend normally was? She was definitely drunk. Seeing her acting so shy made his heart pound even harder. In his drunken eyes, the line between friendly rival and beautiful woman was starting to blur just a little too much. Enough for him to say, "Honestly? Yeah, you do. If you were a real girl, you'd make me the happiest man alive to hold you like this."

Ranma swallowed hard and turned away, ashamed at the blush that had completely enveloped her body. "I-I'm only holdin' onto ya 'cause otherwise I'd fall over! You're right, we must be drunk or somethin'. I kinda remember seeing it happen now."

Ryoga sighed, realizing she was right. That was the only reason they were both holding onto each other right now. Nothing more. Anything else was just the drink talking.

"Maybe we should head back and get some sleep then," he suggested with a tinge of sadness in his voice.

"In a minute," Ranma said, re-establishing her balance using his shoulder. "I-I need to clear my head a bit first..."

She didn't want to admit it, but it felt so nice to be held like this, with one of his arms wrapped around the small of her waist. She felt so safe, so warm on this cold night. Ever since he drank from her, he'd made her feel warm and fuzzy just by being next to her, but this was comforting enough to stave away any embarrassment she may have had of being seen like this.

Unless that was the alcohol speaking.

'_If anyone saw us like this, they'd just think we're a normal couple,_' she reasoned to herself. '_Maybe Akane's right about that. He's not a bad choice for 'Ranko' afterall. I'm just playing a part, the part of a normal vampire girl, as normal as that can be. This isn't me, so it's fine. It's fine to play the part for just one night, right?_'

Regardless of her mental reasoning, one thing was for sure, she was too tired to care what people thought right now. All that mattered was being here, with him, in this moment.

"This is fine. Just a little longer," she asked.

Ryoga was happy to oblige.

* * *

"Oh no, she's getting a fever!" Akane cried, seeing her unconscious friend convulse and sweat in her bedding. "I've seen this before!"

"She's just turning. It'll all be over soon," the nurse said, taking a damp rag and holding it to the girl's forehead. "Whoever bit her was a pure-blood, there's no doubt now."

"I think I know who did it, too," Akane said. This is the third time she's seen the change happen, but that didn't make it any easier. She was especially worried, knowing it was Ranma's sire who probably did the act.

"I've got her from here. It's late, you should probably get going," the nurse told Akane, after glancing at the clock.

"Are you sure? I can wait until she wakes up, it's no bother to me," Akane offered, but the nurse wasn't having it.

"From what I heard, you should know as well as I do that it could take her a day or two to recover. And when she wakes up, she's going to need all the friends she can get. I'll call for you the moment she wakes up, ok?" the nurse offered the worried girl.

Akane glanced back to her friend in worry and then back to the nurse. "Promise? The second she wakes up?"

"Promise. Now go along to bed dear, it's late. And be careful, ok?"

"Alright, thank you for all your help. Goodnight," Akane said, standing from her chair for the first time in over an hour and heading for the door.

Akane walked in silence in the cold of night, rubbing her arms and regretting not bringing her coat from the ballroom before rushing off to the infirmary.

"It's on the way, I may as well go grab it," she thought aloud.

When she made it to the ballroom, nearly everyone had gone. The music had slowed and only a handful of close couples remained on the dancefloor, and tables were skewn with trash and lost jackets. Luckily, it didn't take her long to find hers thrown over a chair at one of the tables.

As she picked up her coat and threw it on, she glanced once more to the dance floor with a yearning sigh at what could have been, and noticed a familiar figure swaying along with a yellow and black bandana wrapped around his head, clashing hard with his formal suit.

"Ryoga?" she said quietly to herself. She debated going to say hello, but decided not to when she noticed a set of slim arms wrapped around his neck. Unforunately, Akane couldn't see who the lucky girl was from behind the couple, just her arms and the occasional glint from the skirt of her swaying dress.

"I'm glad he got to come afterall. And the way they're holding each other..." Akane sighed again, seeing how even in such a short timespan, Ryoga found someone and was already far more romantic than she'd ever been with Ranma. She sighed, trying to control her anger and the hint of jealousy brewing and decided it was best she just go to bed and put this night past her. "I'm glad he found someone. Maybe I should too."

Akane had to hold her breath to keep from crying at the realization and decided to head off to bed. A long hot shower would feel really nice right about now.

* * *

"Hey, come on you two, time to go home," a voice called from behind Ryoga, accompanied by a tap on the shoulder.

Ryoga looked up in surprise and saw that nobody else was there besides them and a few older students cleaning up. The music had long stopped and everyone else had gone.

"It's over?" he asked, more to himself than the man who had alerted him.

"It's been over for almost twenty minutes, we just didn't want to break you up, but we have to lock up soon so it's time to head back to the dorm, alright?" the man said before walking off.

Ryoga just nodded and looked down to find the mess of dark red hair had fallen asleep against him. Gently, he poked her cheek a few times. "C'mon, wake up. Time to go," he quietly said.

Ranma looked up with a dazed expression that Ryoga couldn't help but find cute. "Huh?" was all she managed to say.

"It's over, it's time to go," he repeated.

"Already?" she cried. "But we just got here!"

* * *

Back at the dorm, the duo barely managed to push the door open because they were hanging on each other for support. Finally inside, they managed to separate with a little stumble and Ryoga turned to latch the door.

"Ranma... thank you for tonight. I really needed that," he said, stumbling his way back to his bed.

Ranma replied with a bright smile and a mock curtsey, dramatically bowing down and spreading her skirt while saying, "not at all, the pleasure was all mine!" and the second she stood up, she collapsed backwards onto her bed.

She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

* * *

Luckily for them, the following day was a day off and they got a chance to sleep in, but when they awoke, they both had pounding headaches.

And Ranma had a mild panic attack over her outfit. "What the hell am I wearing?!"

After the two had cleaned up a bit and Ranma had brushed that ridiculous bun out of her hair, they made their way down to the cafe where Akane was already waiting and sipping her tea.

"There you are, you're late!" she said, seeing to two tired people slog their way over and take a seat. "Did you forget you planned to have lunch with me or what?"

"Sorry Akane, I guess we got a little sidetracked..." Ranma groggily apologized, reaching for the kettle and a cup for herself, making sure to drop a tablet into her cup before pouring in the tea.

Once she was done, she handed it off to Ryoga who did the exact same thing.

"Last night..." Akane coyly began, eyeing Ryoga. "I stopped by the ballroom to grab my coat and saw something very interesting."

Seeing that she wasn't getting any interesting reaction from her friends, she asked point blank, "So Ryoga, who's the lucky girl?"

Ryoga and Ranma spit out their tea, damn near soaking Akane.

"A-Akane, I can explain! It's not what it looked like, it's, ah-" Ranma started blubbering, waving her hands around.

"Yeah, see, it was a misunderstanding and an accident, it didn't mean anything, I swear!" Ryoga blubbered, mimicking Ranma.

Akane raised a brow in confusion. "What's go you so worked up, Ranma? You weren't even there."

Ranma froze, realizing she was in the clear, and calmly grabbed her teacup. "Right. Sorry. Continue." She took a sip and looked up at Ryoga. "So who was the lucky girl?"

Ryoga looked down at her with a sneer as if to say '_I'm gonna kill you, Saotome_,' but he composed himself and thought of something quick. "Ah, just someone I met a few days ago in class."

Akane cracked a knowing smirk. "You two seemed pretty close, leaning into each other like that. Are you dating?"

"WHAT?!" Ryoga shouted, with Ranma choking on her tea. "I mean, uh, no, she's actually moving out of the country so that was her last day here." At least it'd keep Akane from investigating further.

"Oh how sad, but that's sweet of you, Ryoga. What a romantic sendoff," Akane said dreamily with a sigh. "I bet she had a really good time last night. That was really nice of you, to give her a goodbye like that. I'm sure she'll never forget it."

"I-I wouldn't say it was THAT nice..." he said, blushing and scratching his cheek, unable to look Akane in the eye.

Ranma, for her part, was still half asleep and nursing a headache so she almost didn't notice that she quietly said out loud, "Oh, it was pretty nice alright."

Ryoga could barely hear it but he heard it just the same. "Huh? Really?" he asked, looking down at the shorter girl next to him.

"Hmm? What'd you say, Ranma?" Akane asked, having missed Ranma's mumbling.

"Oh, I was just agreeing with you. That was a pretty nice thing to do for her. I bet she enjoyed it alright," she said with a wink to Ryoga.

Ryoga blushed, unsure of how to respond, and opted to fill his face with snacks from the table to end the converstation, making Akane and Ranma laugh at his adorable embarrassment.

* * *

**A/N: **Ryoga is willing enough, given the right push, but all it took for Ranma to open up was a little sexual awakening. That wasn't so hard, was it? ;D

Tune in next time for a drama-filled christmas vacation, full of more revelations about Ryoga's nature, some unfortunate truths from Ranma's family, and a christmas gift none of them will ever forget.

**Posted 11/14/2019**


	6. Chapter 6: Lament of Innocence

Ch6: Lament of Innocence

* * *

**Trigger Warning: **Suicidal idealization; Copious amounts of blushing

* * *

"C'mon, Akane, I'm sure she'll be fine," Ranma called to his fiance. Ranma stood with Ryoga by the doors of the sun dorm's building, waiting for Akane to say her goodbyes to her friends, and more importantly, the poor girl who was bit the week before.

"Are you sure you'll be alright, Rei?" Akane asked the girl with a hug.

"Stop worrying Akane, I'm sure I'll be fine with Mr. Cross and Yuki helping me out. They're going to follow me home so we can all talk to my parents together," she said, taking Akane's hug and pulling away.

"Alright, well, just be careful, ok?" Akane asked with pleading eyes.

"I will," Rei smiled, taking a glance past her friend to see the two boys waiting on her. "Have a good Christmas, alright?"

"Thanks, you too. I'll see you in a couple of weeks!" Akane said with a wave goodbye, turning to join her friends.

"About time, Akane. I'm gettin' thirsty just waitin' here like this. I'm not looking forward to the flight at all," Ranma said, lifting his bag around his shoulders.

"Just fly as a girl then, jeez," Akane snapped. "You spend most of your time that way as it is, what's the big deal?"

"That's _exactly_ the big deal!" he nearly shouted. "I never get to be a guy anymore! Here we have two weeks off and I plan to spend as much of it as a guy as I can!"

'_Besides, being a girl so much is starting to mess with my head_,' Ranma thought to himself.

"She has a point though. It's a long flight. Better to fly in comfort than to have you freaking out every few minutes," Ryoga offered. "How do you even plan to drink when the time comes? As a guy, you know you can't make the whole trip to Tokyo without it."

"I was just gonna go to the bathroom as always," he snapped. "No problem."

Of course, on the flight, he wasn't allowed to carry a drink into the bathroom with him so he had to change in his seat when nobody was looking. Flight attendants were a little confused when a girl they didn't recognize got off the plane, but didn't want to make a scene by calling her out as they disembarked. It's impossible to have a stow-away on a flight, isn't it?

Sometime between the airport, the trains, and the walk from the station to the Tendo Dojo, Ranma had changed back and was really regretting being so wet in the cold weather. Yet he was determined to meet his family as a guy. Specifically, his mother.

"Ranma, my sooon~!" she called as she rushed to greet him with her arms stretched out for a hug that Ranma really didn't want. "I'm so glad to see you're alright!"

"I'm fine, Ma! Just.. let go!" he called out from under the layers of his mother's kimono.

"Well boy, it seems you made it through this 'vampire training' alright," his father called, walking up to the group. "You haven't turned into a monster yet."

"Yet," Akane repeated. "But with his attitude, it's only a matter of time," she said, stalking away from the Saotomes and Ryoga to go greet her own family.

Ryoga could only stand there awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

"Did you two get in a fight again, boy?" Genma accused his son.

Ranma could only sigh. "Nah, she just gets mad that I get so irritable when I'm thirsty... y'know, for blood..." he trailed off. It was still so unnatural for him to acknowledge what he had been living for months now.

"When you left, you could hardly control your cravings. How bad are they now?" his father asked. Ranma wasn't sure if it was genuine concern or to criticize his progress in his 'training'.

"...Less than an hour between drinks," he admitted shamefully.

Genma and Nodoka were taken aback by this. "It's gotten worse?! How can this be?" his mother asked.

"I dunno, it's something to do with the curse or my blood or somethin'. It's supposed to be unique or somethin'. The guys at the academy are still lookin' into it," Ranma spat, angry at the situation and at himself for being so vulnerable to the whims of his nature. He was the best, the best! To think that something as simple as a craving for susentance would be his undoing.

"And what of your cursed form, dear?" his mother asked. "You can go longer in your cursed form, right?"

"Yeah, about a day, maybe a day and a half at most before the cravings get bad enough." He also didn't want to admit that being a guy for more than a few minutes was affecting his body as well. When he returned to normal, he seemed tired and his skin had taken a pale and lifeless tone about it. His cheeks were sunken in, there were bags under his eyes, and he was pretty sure his blue eyes had taken a gray hue to them. He was still able to hold up against Ryoga in a spar, but he felt like a sluggish zombie doing so.

Part of him thought Ryoga had been going easy on him too, but he couldn't be sure.

All he knew was that if a cure wasn't found soon, he was worried he might turn.

"Well there's progress!" Genma cheered, but his wife wasn't so enthusiastic about it.

'_Che, 'progress' he says_,' Ranma thought to himself. '_Progress at the cost of my manhood_.'

Nodoka had clearly inferred what Ranma was thinking and frowned at the idea. All she could say was, "I see," and turn her attention to Ryoga. "What about you, Ryoga-kun? How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing great, thanks!" Ryoga chirped, happy to pull the subject away from his depressed and brooding commrade. "I can go about two days now if I really wanted to! Turns out I'm a pure-blood too, so I won't ever turn into a Level E. I can't wait to tell my mom the good news!"

"Well that's good to hear, dear. Let's all head inside, it's freezing out here," Nodoka said, and they all nodded and began heading inside.

"I'll take you over to your house in a bit, alright? Just let me get out of these wet clothes," Ranma said, carrying his pack inside.

Ryoga nodded and followed along.

After some greetings with Mister Tendo and the Tendo sisters, Ryoga and the Saotomes sat down around the table eagerly awaiting Kasumi's lunch while Ranma went to go change out of his damp and cold clothing. When he returned, he was wearing a fresh pair of black slacks and his dingy-yellow chinese top with the bowtie. It was a bit cold to go sleeveless, but not as cold as wet silk. It was only a matter of time before that damp shirt got cold enough to change him anyway.

"Aww man, Kasumi, that smells great!" he said, taking his seat at the lively table.

"Thank you, Ranma. Since you're all returning from your boarding school, I thought it would be nice to do something special for lunch today," Kasumi said with a smile.

This was going to be a treat indeed.

"You're going to take me home after this, right?" Ryoga asked across the table, just to make sure.

Ranma nodded with a scowl. "What are ya, stupid? I've only told ya like a dozen times already. Want me to write a damn note on your hand, too?"

"Ranma! There's no need to be so rude to your friend!" Kasumi chided, covering her mouth in shock at Ranma's behavior.

Ranma snapped on Kasumi with a hard glare. "Well maybe if he had half a brain he could just go on his own instead of needing a seeing-eye dog like that blind idiot Mousse!" Ranma shouted in Kasumi's face, causing her to flinch back in fear. "If you haven't noticed his sense of direction by now, you're as dumb as he is!" he snapped.

"_Ranma!_ How dare you speak that way to Kasumi!" Mister Tendo shouted, rising from his seat. That had gone way over the line.

"Eh, what's it to you, old man?!" Ranma shouted back, joining him in standing and glaring daggers at Soun. In his angry growling, you could almost see a fang sticking out over his lip. Or rather, you would have if he were changed.

"Ranma, calm down already, you're making a scene," Ryoga pleaded but Ranma wasn't having it.

"Making a scene, huh? Whose fault do you think this is?!" Ranma snapped, turning his attention on Ryoga.

"Boy, this is completely inappropriate behavior!" Genma shouted, rising to join them in the argument. "You need to cool off!"

In a flash, Ranma was sailing through the air and right into the chilly koi pond in the yard that hadn't yet frozen over.

"W-w-w-what the h-h-h-hell w-w-as that f-f-f-or?" the red-haired girl managed to get out through chattering teeth.

"Ranma, you were doing it again," Akane said with a sigh, taking a glass of water and one of the artificial blood tablets and meeting the smaller girl as she was climbing out of the disgusting pond. "Here, take this."

Ranma took the glass and gulped it all down in one go. "Thanks, Akane. Sorry about that."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," Akane said, thumbing back in the direction of the dining room where Genma and Soun were fuming, Nabiki and Nodoka were scowling in disappointment, and Ryoga was trying to console Kasumi who was crying.

"Oh crap, I really did it this time, didn't I?" she said quietly, her heart sinking into her stomach.

Sheepishly she returned to the dining room and put a hand on Kasumi's shoulder.

"I'm really really sorry, Kasumi. I didn't mean to snap at ya like that, I just... I have a hard time as a guy. I know it's not a good excuse but it's the truth. I'm so sorry," she said, hoping it was enough to ease the tension in the room.

"If this is how you are going to behave as a man in my home Son, then you are no man! You can go straight back to that school of yours and come back when you learn to act like a real man!" Mister Tendo demanded with smoke billowing out of his nostrils.

"Now now Tendo, he was just lashing out because of his condition," Genma offered, trying to assauge his friend, but it wasn't doing much good. He just didn't want to get kicked out of his temporary home.

"That was extremely unmanly behavior of you, Ranma," Nodoka said, instinctively reaching for her sword, causing both Genma and Ranma to flinch. "You bring dishonor to your family name."

"It's ok, I understand," Kasumi said through a sniffle. "I don't blame you. Just... c-can I make a request?"

Everyone was all-eyes on Kasumi. For Ranma to hurt such a nice and innocent girl's feelings, of course he would do anything to mend the damage. And every parent in the room was thinking he had damn well better.

"Just... if you're like that as a boy, would you mind staying a girl while you're home, Ranma?" Kasumi asked. "I understand if you don't want to..."

"He'll do it!" Sound declared loudly. "On his honor as a martial artist, and as a _MAN_, he will do anything to make it up to you! Even if that means staying a girl until this whole mess is over!"

"Soun, don't you think that's a bit.." Genma began but Soun turned a glare towards his old friend; his battle aura sprouting a demonic head the size of the room to dwarf Genma and his wife.

"HE WILL DO WHATEVER SHE ASKS OR HE IS NOT WELCOME IN MY HOME!" Demon-Soun shouted.

Quivering in fear, the three Saotomes nodded in agreement.

"H-hey, ah, Ryo?" Ranma finally managed to squeak out. "Maybe now would be a good time to go and see your mom."

Ryoga nodded. "Y-Yeah, good idea..."

Together, the 'boys' left the hostile room and tore off upstairs so Ranma could change yet again. She would have loved to take a bath to scrub away the pond water, but leaving the house felt like a way higher priority. She'd get a bath later. For now, fresh clothes would be enough. Once they were alone in the guest room and Ranma began digging through her suitcase, Ryoga decided to speak up.

"You really are getting bad, man. I don't care how you speak to me, but Kasumi? She's so sweet and nice, you probably shattered her fragile heart by shouting at her," he admonished. "That was really uncool."

"Don't you think I know that?!" Ranma snapped, guilt written all over her face. If Ryoga didn't know any better, he'd think she was on the verge of tears. "It feels like it's getting worse. Seems like the whole damn universe is tryin' ta get me to be a girl and I can't even have one afternoon of relaxing with the Tendos and enjoying Kasumi's amazing food without ruining everything, just because I can't contain my attitude as a guy! I feel like I've lost control of my _life_! The sooner we find a cure for this vampire thing, the sooner things can go back to normal."

Well, as normal as Ranma's life ever gets.

"I don't know if there even is a cure for me, being a 'pure blood' supposedly," Ryoga commented, rubbing the back of his head. "But I'll do what I can to help you."

"Eh? Really?" she said, turning her hopeful eyes away from her laundry and towards Ryoga again.

"Yeah, it's the least I can do. We're in this together, aren't we?"

Finally, after a long day of brooding, she smiled. She actually smiled. "Yeah. Thank you, Ryo."

'_God she looks so cute when she smiles like that_,' Ryoga absently thought but, realizing how wrong of a thought that was, he quickly blushed and turned away. "H-hurry up and find some clothes, I wanna go home."

"Um... I don't think I have any," Ranma realized. "All I have that isn't wet or dirty is my school uniforms, and I'm not wearing either of them here."

"Well did you leave any clothes here before we left?" he asked.

"Er, just... one outfit..." she blushed, glancing over to the wardrobe in the corner of the room.

Therein lay her one clean and dry outfit that had nothing to do with school... a thin navy-blue sweater and a pair of Akane's light-purple overalls with the word 'China' on them.

With Ryoga standing in the hall so Ranma could safely change, she put on the cute outfit and hated every last fiber of her being. '_Why does it always have to be girly stuff? What is my life coming to?_' she asked herself. Sighing in defeat, she called to Ryoga, "I'm done".

The door opened and what Ryoga saw was a very shy girl wearing cute fitted overalls and blushing hard from embarrassment. He couldn't help but stifle a laugh when he noticed that the dot on the I in 'China' was actually a little pink heart. "It... suits you."

Ranma rolled her eyes. "That's what Nabiki said. C'mon, let's just go already and get this over with," she said, reaching for a simple winter coat that she was glad she bought for her girl form last year. At least with the jacket, nobody would see her embarrassing outfit.

* * *

"I feel like my life is falling apart," Ranma said with downcast eyes while adjusting her scarf. It seemed almost cold enough out there to snow!

"Ranma, please don't take this the wrong way, but... maybe you should learn to accept it. It might turn out that there is no cure for vampirism, and then what? You will only get worse and worse to the point where you can't be a guy again. You'll have no choice but to learn to live with it."

Ryoga's logic was sound and she knew it. And she hated it.

"I know that! I think about that every day! And I think about what would happen if I did. I'd lose my family. I'd lose who I _am_. I'd lose... Akane..." she said, still not looking up at him.

If Ryoga didn't know any better, he'd think she was on the verge of crying. Again.

"Do you think I like snapping at people all the time? I feel horrible about talking to Kasumi like that. If I could just make this all go away..." she said, looking off into the distance. Her eyes followed the canal to a bridge and found herself staring at it with a longing gaze.

Ryoga knew that look all too well.

"Stop it," he said sternly, grabbing her by the shoulders and making her look him in the eyes. "I know what you're thinking and you need to stop it. You're not taking the coward's way out. You're stronger than this."

Ranma looked away from the emerald eyes boring into her skull. "How do you know."

It wasn't a question.

"I know because you're the strongest person I know, both inside and out," Ryoga began, causing Ranma to flush a little at the praise. "You beat me in nearly every fight through speed and your clever thinking, even if you can't match my brute strength. That's a different kind of strength. And when I was about to lose it and end it all, who saved me from my weakness?_ You_ did with your stupid confidence shot. You are strong enough to get through this. Even if you're stuck this way for life, you're still _you_, got it? You're still the brazen asshole who I'm going to try to beat up every chance I get!"

"Heh, well now's a great time to try," Ranma spat, welcoming a little pain. "Aren't you always going on about killing me?"

"There'd be no honor in killing you when you want it, and you know it," he countered.

Ranma couldn't think of anything else to say on the subject so she finally conceded. "Fine, just let me go already. I'm fine." She just wanted to get Ryoga home so she could go back and maybe just sleep away these two weeks.

Ryoga didn't let go. He gripped tighter, locking her in a tight hug with his immense strength.

"Promise me you won't do something like that. I wouldn't have survived this long without you, so I don't know how long I could last if you weren't here. Promise you'll stay with me."

"L-let go, I can't b-breathe..."

"_PROMISE ME!_" he growled.

"Alright alright, I promise I won't kill myself, now_ let go_!" she managed to shout through his arms and like magic, she was able to breathe again. She even fell to her knees to catch her breath.

"Come on," Ryoga said, offering his hand to the coughing girl to help her up. "I have a feeling we're almost there."

Ranma glared at the hand and smacked it away, standing up on her own and stalking ahead.

Ryoga could swear he heard her mutter "jerk" as she went past, but was glad to see she was back to her normal angry self. Angry is better than depressed, at least in his mind.

* * *

"Ryooogaaaa~!" a woman shouted as she opened the door to find her son waiting on the steps. Immediately the tall blonde woman draped her arms around her son and she pulled him into a tight hug. "Oh, Ryoga, I've missed you so much! So much has happened!"

"H-hey Mom," Ryoga managed to get out from her iron-like grip. "C-can ya let go? I-I can't breathe-!"

"_Che_, serves ya right," Ranma muttered with a smirk.

The mother stopped her wiggling and froze, her eyes popping open at the sound of a female voice. She looked to Ranma and blinked twice before pulling back from her son.

"Oh? Who's this?" she asked, a million questions going through her mind.

"Mom, this is Ranma. Remember, from junior high? Ranma Saotome," Ryoga said, motioning over to introduce his friend.

Ranma simply nodded. "Hey."

The gears were slowly turning in the woman's mind, piecing together everything she could remember hearing about Ranma several years ago. Wasn't Ryoga going to an all-boys school back then? ...Was she enrolled as a boy?

"Ranma...?" she asked, slowly putting things together, but then she smiled as she remembered. "Oh yes, your 'rival'!" she said, looking Ranma over, head to toe, and then she grinned. "I can see why he followed you all the way to China, puberty really hit _you_ like a brick!"

Ranma blushed at the comment. "W-what's that supposed to mean?!"

Ryoga could only laugh.

"Nothing, dear. Nothing at all. I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Shiori Hibiki, Ryoga's mother. It's good to see you," she said with a smile, motioning for them to come in and take off their jackets, which they did. "But you can just call me Shiori. Ryoga, you never mentioned that Ranma was a girl. Now your little 'rivalry' makes a lot more sense," she coyly said to her son.

Ranma glared and spat out, "I'm _not_ a girl!"

Shiori looked surprised, once again taking in the person in front of her wearing the cute overalls with the little heart over the 'i' in 'China' and the adorable braid falling over her shoulder and almost reaching what she assumed were C-cups, at the least. "I'm... not sure I follow."

"Um, Mom?" Ryoga spoke up, directing her attention away from the fuming red-head. "Y'know how I told you about my curse? The one from Jusenkyo? Well, Ranma has one too."

"And _this_ is it!" Ranma added, motioning to her body. "I just gotta be this way 'cause as a guy, I turn fully human and I can't handle the cravings!" she said, crossing her arms in a huff.

"You're a vampire too?" Shiori blinked. "I thought you smelled strange."

"You can smell her blood? How?" Ryoga asked in shock.

"Oh, I should probably explain a few things. Before we head to the living room, Ryoga, please bite me," she asked with a serious look on her face.

* * *

One bite and a trip to the living room later, Shiori was controlling the feverish sweats that beset her and licked her freshly sprung, well, longer fangs. "Ah, that takes me back. I sure could go for a drink, though."

"Here, try this," Ranma said, offering an artificial blood tablet. "It's fake blood or something. You take it with water."

"Really? This is amazing!" she said, rushing to the kitchen and back with a tray that held three glasses of water. "Something like this means we won't have to feed on people and erase their memories to survive! Who came up with this?" She was absolutely ecstatic.

"Not sure, Mom," Ryoga said, taking a swig of his own drink. "Headmaster Cross gave them to us. We get them from school."

"Cross? As in, _Kaien_ Cross? The Hunter?" she asked with a cold look in her eyes.

"Yeah, I think so. He's the headmaster of our school," Ryoga answered.

"Nice guy and all but he can be pretty strange sometimes," Ranma added, taking a sip from her own glass.

Shiori looked back to the tin the tablets came from and noticed the symbol of Cross Academy printed into the metal. "Well, I'll be. The fool actually went and did it."

"You know him?" Ryoga asked.

"Know him? He's half the reason we went into hiding!" she nearly shouted.

"What do you mean?" Ryoga was starting to get worried. Was Mr. Cross someone who couldn't be trusted? After all he'd done for them?

"It's a long story, but you deserve to know the truth about our family, Ryoga. I'll start with this. You and I were both born vampires, and we come from a long line of pure-bloods."

Ryoga and Ranma were in utter shock.

"Haven't you ever wondered why you have those fangs? They're a remnant from your natural birth form. We had to perform a spell on you to protect you when you were a young child, but unfortunately, it affected your father and I too."

"What do you mean? What spell?" he asked.

Shiori sighed. "A spell to turn you human. We did it to ourselves as well, but there was a side effect.. we all lost our sense of direction."

"So _that's_ why..." Ryoga muttered. "I haven't been getting lost much for a while now, not since I was bit."

"You shouldn't be getting lost at ALL now that the spell's broken," Shiori said, which made Ryoga's jar drop.

"You mean, this whole time, I've been cured of my directional sense?"

"I guess you were right, Ryoga," Ranma chimed in. "You've gone so few places by yourself since being bit that I guess we just never figured it out.

"That's right. The spell can only be undone by being bit by a pure-blood. And now that you've bitten me, I'm cured of it too," she said with a smile. "And once your father makes his way home, I'll be sure to turn him back as well, and we can be a normal family again."

Ryoga looked on the verge of tears from the happy news. His whole family, together forever? It was a dream come true. He couldn't even recall a time where all three of them had been in the same room together at the same time. "I hope he makes it home in time for Christmas, that'd be the best gift ever!"

Ranma couldn't help but smile at her friend's happiness. Being turned really was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. "I'm really happy for ya buddy," she said with a sad smile, thinking about her own family. "But why did you use the spell in the first place? Why go through with it knowing the consequences?"

Shiori sighed again and looked to Ranma. "It's a long story dear, like I said, but the short version is, we had upset someone in the artistocratic circle. The last remaining heiress of one of the pure-blood clans. Her whole family had been hunted by Cross' commrades in the guild over the years and in her sadness, she just... stopped drinking. As pure-bloods, we can't become Level E's at all, but she still lost her mind from the cravings. If we go too long, we could potentially lose ourselves... and in her sadness, she did."

"So what happened to her?" Ranma asked, wide-eyed at the story.

"She killed several prominent hunters and even some high-level vampires as well. In her madness, she drank from them until there was nothing left but dust," she said, taking note of the sad expression that befell Ranma when she said that. '_She must have seen it happen before_,' she surmised.

"To try and put a stop to her, your father and I teamed up with Kaien and a few of the others, on both sides, to come up with a plan to take her down, but we messed up. She killed more and threatened us as well, so we ran. We moved from town to town, but every place we went, she followed. She gained a keen sense of smell for our blood. Any special blood, really. She would not let up. So, when we found out I was pregnant with you, we used the spell to hide our scent to protect you. In a way, the directional curse helped to hide us more."

"Special blood...?" Ranma asked quietly. She looked over to Ryoga who shared a worried look with her. "You don't think it's the same one, do you?"

"Hmm? Same one as what?" Shiori asked, not understanding what the kids were on about.

Ryoga turned back to his mother with a sad look. "The woman who turned us was a pure-blood... and she said my blood smelled familiar."

"And apparently mine is special somehow," Ranma added.

Shiori went pale at the news. "Where was this."

"Some old ghost town a couple hours' drive from here," Ranma said. "Mr. Cross and Kaname think she was hunting me down, and recently, by the school, she may be attacking more people."

"Kaname? Kaname Kuran?" she asked.

Both of the kids nodded.

She let out a breath of relief. "Well that's good to hear. As long as he's around, she wouldn't dare attack you. Still though, this sounds pretty serious if she's followed you all the way to the school."

"What should we do?" Ranma asked with a tinge of worry in her voice.

"Do you have the number of the school? I'd like to talk with Kaien as soon as I can," she said.

Ranma just pointed to the tin sitting on the coffee table. "It's on the tin. You can use that number to order more tablets, too. I don't think he even charges for them."

"Huh. Well that's convenient," she commented, looking the tin over and finding the phone number. "I guess he really truly believes our peoples can coexist."

"That's what he said about the school," Ryoga said. "He said that's why it exists."

Shiori smiled, reminiscing on the days of old. "I'm glad he finally made his dream a reality, for all our sakes. I need to congratulate him when I speak with him. I wonder if he even remembers me..." she trailed off.

"Say, um, Shiori?" Ranma spoke up, unsure of using an adult's given name so casually like that. "Do you wanna try tasting my blood? To figure out why it's so unique that she'd hunt me down? Kaname took a taste test but he hasn't come up with anything yet."

"Sure, if you don't mind, Ranma-chan," she said, taking Ranma's hand.

Before Ranma could rebuke the feminine suffix, Shiori had bit into her finger and began to taste the sweet nectar that was her special blood.

"Mmm, it's so sweet! And nostalgic!" she chirped, smiling away and licking her lips. "It's so good! Ryoga, have a taste! You don't mind, do you dear?"

Ranma blushed and Ryoga held up his hands and shied away from the idea. "N-no thanks, I'm good," he said.

Ranma just frowned and held the wound with her thumb to stop the bleeding. "Well? What do you think?"

Shiori sat back in her chair and thought hard for a moment. "Well it's definitely familiar, like a pure-blood's but stronger. You don't have any family that are vampires, do you?"

"Not that I know of," she said with a shrug. Honestly, she didn't know any of her family beyond her parents. "I know my dad's supposed to be from a long line of honorable warriors and my mother's supposed to be from some high-class family, but I really don't know anything about either side."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Shiori offered. "Now that I think about it, it tastes like Kaori's blood, but way stronger and sweeter. Like it's more pure or something."

"Kaori? Who's that?" Ryoga asked.

"She's the woman who sired you," Shiori said without missing a beat.

Both Ranma and Ryoga swallowed hard. Their hunter finally had a name.

"But there's no way you could be related to her. Her family were all hunted out of existence, dating all the way back to the very very first vampire families. Not a one of them got to live a full life."

"Really? But I thought you were on good terms with the hunters," Ryoga said, recalling his mother's story.

"Well, that wasn't always the case. For hundreds and hundreds of years, vampires and humans killed one another. It's only recently that a peace was able to be made, and we have Kaien Cross to thank for that," she explained.

"I guess I owe him thanks too," Ryoga said, both he and Ranma realizing a newfound respect for their quirky headmaster. The guy was practically a hero and they never knew it.

"I guess that's why Kaname respects him so much," Ranma said, with the Hibikis both nodding in agreement.

"Though now that I think about it, there was _one_ of Kaori's ancestors who wasn't murdered... Now, my knowledge of vampire history may be a little fuzzy, but I think she died on a trip to China, about fifteen-hundred years ago. Poor girl was just a teenager when she fell into a pond or something and drowned. Such a tragic story, don't you think?"

Ranma's jaw dropped.

"You can't be serious."

"What, do you know the story? I thought only the original vampire families knew that one," Shiori asked in surprise at Ranma's reaction.

"Oh, I know it alright. That wasn't a pond, it was a magical spring. It was the spring I fell in that gave me this body!" she said, standing up and motioning over her body. "It had to be! Why else would my blood taste like hers?"

"My god, I think you might be right," Shiori said, covering her mouth in shock. "That would explain why she's after you, too. I hope she hasn't killed more people like you..."

"How so?" Ryoga asked; Ranma plopping back into her chair with a huff of indignation.

"Well, it's just an old wives' tale, but if this is true then there may be some truth to the story, too," she began. "I'm sure someone's told you by now that the only way to keep from turning into a Level E for a bitten human is to bite their sire, right?"

Both kids nodded.

"Well, the same thing goes for born vampires. If one descends far enough into madness, they just need to drink from another pure-blood. But if a pure-blood falls into madness like Kaori, the only way back is to drink from someone with the _same_ blood. Since she has no family..."

"...it's gotta be me," Ranma finished, turning pale. "But she already drank from me once, why would she be after me again?"

"Maybe it wasn't enough?" Shiori pondered with a shrug. "Or maybe you had to turn first so your blood would be more pure? It's hard to say."

Ranma looked down into her glass of transleuscent red liquid and sighed. "So what am I, then? Am I a pure-blood like you guys, or just another turned human destined to become a monster?"

Shiori and Ryoga could hear the emotion through her cracking voice. She wasn't taking this well.

"Hey, cheer up, Ranma. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. You taste like an ancestral pure blood and may just be one for all I know. At least, in your cursed form. I don't know how that magic transformation stuff works," Shiori offered, but she was afraid she wouldn't be much help to the ailing girl.

"But what about when I'm a guy, huh?" she started, still not looking up at who she was speaking to. "Whenever I'm a guy I feel like crap and I get the cravings so bad that I start... being horrible to the people I love. Am I going to become a Level E and hurt them?"

"It's hard to say, but if it's that bad in your boy form, it's probably going to happen. Right before getting to that level, people turn viscious and cruel and do horrible things."

"...like drinking someone to death," she muttered.

"Yeah, like that. But hey, it's not so bad living as a girl, right? At least you're cute," she offered, but Ranma didn't seem to be listening. "And you're human, unlike my little porky piggy here," she said, winking at her son.

"H-hey!" he shouted, blood running to his cheeks. "Not funny, mom!"

"Yeah. Really not funny," Ranma said quietly.

Shiori left her seat and knelt down next to the small girl who seemed so much smaller in the moment, and she lifted her chin. "Come on, cheer up," she said. What she found when she saw Ranma's face was that she was crying silent tears. They were streaming from her sad lavender eyes.

When she saw those eyes, she wrapped the smaller girl in a tight embrace. "It'll be ok, honey. I promise. We'll find Kaori and get some of her blood for you to drink, ok? That aught to keep the cravings from getting worse."

"But what if it doesn't, huh?" Ranma shouted, scaring the older woman back away from her. "What if I drink her blood and all that does is keep things as they are, huh? Am I still gonna be a stupid vampire? What's the point?! I should just let her find me and drink every last drop to put me out of my misery!"

Ranma was shocked when Ryoga suddenly appeared before her and slapped her across the face. Not enough to really hurt, but enough to shock her. She gingerly touched her stinging cheek while she looked up at him with wide surprised eyes.

"Don't you _DARE_!" he shouted into her distraught face. "You promised!"

His look was so stern and serious that Ranma could't hold the gaze. She glanced away, rubbing her cheek. "...Sorry."

Shiori pitied the poor kid. She couldn't exactly empathize with being in her position, but she hoped she could help. "Here, why don't I get us some nice warm camomile and we can all just calm down."

When she was out of the room, Ryoga finally said, "I don't want to hear any more of that talk coming from you."

Ranma scoffed. "Says the guy who perfected the Shi Shi Hokodan and blew a crater in the Earth just because Akane didn't return your feelings."

"Yeah, well, maybe I overreact sometimes, but that just means I can call it out when I see it! It's ok to be upset by this situation, anyone would be in your shoes, but that's still no reason to be talking about suicide like that. You still have plenty to live for."

"Like what?" she spat. "My mom will kill me when she finds out I basically have to be a girl for the rest of my life. I won't be able to carry on the school. And I won't be able to marry Akane."

"Bullshit. Setting your mother aside for now, why wouldn't you be able to carry on the school?" Ryoga asked harshly. He was really getting upset by Ranma's awful pessimism.

"'Cause girls can't be heirs!" she retorted. "Even Happosai said so, and he founded the school!"

"That doesn't mean you have to stop doing what you love," he said. "You can still do martial arts. If it came to that, you could make your own school."

"Or join mine!" Shiori offered, bringing back a tray of tea. "Ryoga told me all about how you beat that Kuno girl in the Rythmic Gymnastics competition! You're a real prodigy in the art, and that's coming from a champion!" she said proudly.

"Champion? What champion? _You?_" Ranma asked.

"Yup!" Shiori smiled. "I was top of my class and I'm a certified master of Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts. I taught Ryoga everything he knows!"

Ryoga shied away and rubbed the back of his head.

Ranma quirked a brow but left it with, "Thanks, but I've got my own school. I just gotta figure out how to break the news without getting kicked out of it."

"Let me help you. I want to help you as much as I can. You helped to reunite my family and I want to do what I can to help you with yours," she offered.

Ranma was touched by the offer, even if she thought it was a fruitless endeavor. "Sure, why not. Maybe I can see if you guys can come to the Christmas party. It's a dojo, there's plenty of space and a bunch of people are usually invited."

"That would be great! Just let me know. I'd love to speak with your parents about all of this, and maybe put their minds at ease," Shiori said, sipping her tea.

Ranma could only let out a breathless laugh. "Heh, you're welcome to try."

"Ranma, we'll get this figured out, alright? I promise," Ryoga said, giving her a concerned look. "Just... promise to stay with me, ok?"

Ranma looked him in the eye for a moment and with a sad grimace, she nodded. "I promise."

Shiori couldn't help the sly smirk she got when she noticed the way they looked at each other. They definitely seemed closer than ordinary friends.

Ranma noticed Ryoga's eyes drift down to her finger which was still covered in blood that was drying fast. She looked back up to Ryoga and with a frown and a slight blush, she held it up towards him and looked away. "Fine, you can lick it clean, just stop staring at me like a piece of meat!"

Ryoga was very happy to oblige and did as he was told.

Shiori only smiled wider. '_They are definitely more than friends..._'

A moment later, and with her tea finished, Ranma got up and stretched. "I should probably get going. It's getting dark out so early now. Hopefully everyone's cooled down by now."

Together, the group walked to the door to see Ranma off.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" Ryoga asked, concerned that Ranma might make a detour to that bridge they passed.

Ranma inferred his meaning and sighed. "Yes, I promise, I'm not going to do anything stupid. That's your job," she finished with a smirk.

Well at least she was in a better mood now.

"Alright then, I guess I'll see you Christmas Eve," he said.

"You know the way now, right? Promise not to get lost?" Ranma asked, quirking a brow.

"I'm cured, remember? Plus I'll have mom with me."

"Okay then, I'll trust you. I'll call after I make sure you can come," she said, throwing on her jacket and tying up her scarf.

"Oh, Ryoga, I just remembered," Shiori said, turning to her son. "Checkers is waiting out in the backyard, why don't you go say hi?"

"Checkers? I completely forgot!" he cried, rushing to the back door.

Shiori smirked and evil little smirk.

"Ranma, before you go, can I ask you something?" she began.

"Sure, what's up, Mrs. Hibiki?" Ranma asked.

"Shiori, _Shiori!_ Call me Shiori!" the woman reminded her. "I just wanted to ask you, what do you think of my son? What kind of man has he become?"

"He's a nice enough guy. A bit thick-headed though. Why do you ask?" she replied.

Shiori sighed. "It's just that I've hardly seen him over the last ten years or so. I missed so much of him growing up. You've been there by his side for what, four years now? Five? You know him better than anyone. Please, what's he like?"

Ranma felt a bit of sympathy, being able to relate to not seeing her own mother in so long, so she decided to ham it up just a little to make her feel better. "Well, he's bull-headed but in a good way. He's super tough and we train together a lot. He keeps me in shape and I'm the only one who can give him a challenge. And even though he gets lost all the time,.."

"_Used to_," Shiori corrected.

"Uh, right, _used to_ get lost all the time, he'd always be there when you needed him most and try his hardest in any situation. You can really rely on him to give it his all. He has a good heart. He even risked his life to help me when this Chinese prince and I were fighting on Mount Horai, and again he helped me save Akane's life when these bird people came around, and now with all this vampire stuff..."

She trailed off, looking off into space and smiling gently to herself at the memories.

"Since we were bitten, he's really become my best friend. At first he was really depressed by this and I helped him keep it together, and now that he's really happy and I'm the one struggling, he's there to keep me going. Without him, I... don't know if I'd be here today. He's really something special, even if he doesn't know it."

Shiori's grin widened once again. "Sounds like you really like my son, don't you?"

"Hmm? Yeah, why?" Ranma tilted her head in confusion, giving an innocent look to Ryoga's mother. "He's proven to be a great friend. He's my _best_ friend. I couldn't imagine life without him now."

"I'm so glad to hear that!" Shiori said with a clap, confusing Ranma even further. "If he doesn't mind your curse, then I don't either! I approve!" She even reached down and took Ranma's hands in glee.

Ranma was at a loss. "Huh? Approve of what? What'd I do?"

"You two make such a cute couple! I hope you stay together forever!"

"DAMNIT, WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP SAYING THAT?!" Ranma yelled, yanking her hands away and reaching for the door knob.

"If you want to give him something nice for Christmas, just let him take a nice long drink of your blood! He'll really like that!" she suggested to the blushing girl.

Ranma whipped around to scowl at the older woman.

"I ain't givin' him shit!" she yelled, slamming the door behind her.

Shiori just laughed and laughed. "Oh man, she is just too adorable!" she said to herself. "I really need to help her come to terms with this sooner than later. She's going to be a vampire for life, afterall."

* * *

Two days later, Ranma and Akane found themselves helping to decorate the dojo. After Mister Tendo had calmed down and Ranma had apologized to Kasumi again, she waited for the right moment to ask if the Hibiki family could come. To Ranma's surprise, Mister Tendo responded, "Of course! That Ryoga boy is practically family by now!" which brought a smile to Ranma's face.

She immediately rushed over to the phone to share the good news.

So now, she and Akane were decorating for their annual Christmas party, complete with garland, fake snowflakes, a stage for karaoke, and a table for the chicken and cake.

"Akane, I know I kinda grew up on the road not knowin' stuff, but this just plain doesn't make sense to me," Ranma started, confused to no end about the Christmas traditions of fried chicken and cake.

"I don't really know either, it's just been this way for a while. At least since the war. And what's not to like about cake? Cake is great on such a romantic night," she said as she hung another red bauble from a strand of garland.

"Romantic? What's so romantic about it?" Ranma asked with a bit of a frown on her face.

"What's romantic about it?! Everything's romantic about it!" Akane flustered, nearly falling from her stepladder. "On Christmas eve, there's something magical in the air, and nothing beats a romantic kiss at midnight between two lovers. It can change your life!"

"And how would _you_ know?" Ranma teased.

Akane shot that right back at her. "Good point, how _WOULD_ I know when you've never kissed me!" she spat, stepping off her ladder and stalking over to the shorter girl. "Why won't you kiss me, Ranma? We're engaged! We nearly got married once, and you know we're supposed to try again, right? If we're going to try and make this marriage thing work, you're going to have to kiss me!"

Ranma couldn't believe hold bold Akane was being. She was flustered, unsure of how to answer, but she definitely wouldn't look Akane in the eye. "I just, well, y'know..." she sighed, thinking this might be a good moment to clear some things up. They were alone, afterall. "Akane, how do you see our future together?"

"Our future?" Akane asked, not quite sure where Ranma was going with this. "We're going to get married, produce the heir that our fathers want, and run the dojo to pass on the art. It's pretty set in stone, isn't it?"

"Well yeah, but what about me and my curse? From what I hear, there's a real possibility this vampire thing might make me a girl for the rest of my life. How does that fit into the plan our dads made for us?" Ranma asked, looking Akane sternly in the eye.

Akane blushed, immediately jumping to the ultimate problem with that. "Well, um, you could be a guy just long enough to, to... Um..." she stuttered. "I hear it goes pretty quick for guys..."

Ranma blushed too. "A-Akane, that's not what I was talkin' about! I was talkin' about our daily lives. What would our lives actually be like if I'm a girl for the rest of it? Would you be able to live with that? Would you be able to kiss me like this?"

Akane paused for a moment. Could she? She liked Ranma for the person he was.. the brash, overly-confident jerk of a pervert he was... but could she bare to live intimately with another woman? To never be held by the taller, stronger man she was married to? To never kiss him, and hold his toned body close? To never have... intimate relations with him, for fear of him snapping on her? "I-I really don't know," she finally admitted.

Ranma put a hand on her shoulder. "This is hard on me too, but I don't think I can handle that life. I can't handle the constant pressures from our parents to marry and be stuck in a hopeless marriage."

"Hopeless?" Akane repeated, worry in her eyes. "You think our marriage would be hopeless?"

Ranma was afraid of the emotion written all over Akane's face, but she nodded. She had to see this through. "I do. I think we're in it for the wrong reasons and it's been doomed since long before this vampire stuff began. If our dads never arranged it to begin with, would you still want to marry me? Tell me honestly. Would you?"

Akane had to think about it, but the answer was painfully obvious. For over two years, she'd hated the arranged marriage and hated Ranma, only trying to convince herself in the last six months or so that maybe she could love him if she really tried, since the wedding seemed inevitable. When they went to Jusendo and she heard him declare his love in a moment of desperation, she thought that maybe, just maybe, they could make this work. But then the wedding crashed thanks to everyone else and since then... nothing. Nothing's happened between them. If anything, they've accepted their forced relationship, but there was no romance. No magic. And certainly no love. It was hard to admit it to herself, but really, she knew all along that she didn't actually love him.

And acknowledging that fact once again hit her so hard that she couldn't stop the tears.

Ranma saw this and immediately threw her arms around Akane, and she whispered in her ear, "Shh, it's ok. I know. It's ok. Find someone you actually have feelings for. Trust your feelings. Love for yourself, not because you're told to."

Akane sniffed and pulled back to look Ranma in the eyes. "Big talk coming from you. When'd you get so good at love advice, huh?"

Ranma only laughed and said, "I don't know, maybe I've been hanging out with Keiko too much lately."

"Keiko?" she sniffed. She didn't know why, but she was starting to feel better already knowing Ranma was more or less on the same page. "Who's that?"

"Eh, just a friend from night class," Ranma explained. "She kinda made herself be my friend. It's hard to explain. She's got this weird obsession with me and Ryoga, though..." Ranma trailed off, recalling all the times Keiko said that they should be together. And forcing her into that dress.

"You and Ryoga, huh?" Akane said, the cogs in her brain turning slowly. "How do you feel about him, Ranma? You've been spending an awful lot of time around him these last two months."

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Ranma said, exhasperated. "He's my friend and nothing more! You of all people should know I'm not into guys."

"But you've never shown any interest in girls, either," Akane said, pointing at herself and quirking a brow. "And even if it's just to trick someone, I _have_ seen you make passes at a lot of guys before, especially him."

Ranma was flustered, being put on the spot like this. "M-maybe I just don't like anyone! What's wrong with that?"

"You're gonna end up liking someone eventually, we all do," Akane retorted. "Honestly, we're almost done with high school and you've seriously never had a crush on anyone? Not even me? You're such a late bloomer."

Ranma was ashamed to look Akane in the eye. She really hadn't. Martial arts had been her whole life, and there'd never been any room for love. She was definitely a late bloomer, though. It seems everyone around her had crushes on someone. Ryoga had a crush on Akane way back when, Akane had a crush on Tofu, Tofu likes Kasumi, hell, even Nabiki seems to have a thing for Kuno, even if it IS just for his money. But not her. Ranma had never felt like she thought she was supposed to towards anyone, not even Akane. She never had any real feelings of desire, phyiscal or emotional, not until that night when Ryoga bit her in the bathroom of their dorm room...

Ranma blushed, recalling that incident. The way her heart pounded with him poised on top of her, pinning her to the ground. That burning, throbbing desire deep in her abdomen. The way she yearned to wrap her legs around his hips in that moment. That was the first time she'd ever felt anything close to real desire. That overwhelming urge to have him hold her tighter; the way just thinking about it now was making her chest hurt and itch under her top. She looked down and noticed she was poking out and her blush ran deeper. It couldn't be, could it? Was that... _desire_? In the love sense? The fact that he made her feel warm and fuzzy just by being around her, wasn't that caused by his bite? That wasn't... a _crush_, was it? No, it couldn't be.

"Ranma?" Akane called, waving her hand in front of Ranma's eyes. "You ok there?"

Ranma had been zoning out and blushing hard thinking about that bathroom incident. She even had her arms crossed over her chest to hide her embarrassing protrusions and was starting to feel a little weak in the knees. "I... think I need to lay down..." she said, taking a seat right there on the floor.

"Ranma, what happened? You just kinda... locked up there," Akane asked, joining her on the floor.

"I don't know, I was just... thinking about something that happened a while ago. A day or two before the dance," she replied, still not making eye contact.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Akane asked, putting a hand on her ex-fiancee's back.

"Um... do you promise not to tell anyone?" Ranma asked, her eyes darting around the room to make sure there weren't any cameras or microphones or actual in-person Nabikis snooping about.

"Of course I do," she replied honestly. "What happened that night?"

Ranma met her eyes briefly before they darted away again and she quietly told the story.

"Remember when Ryoga went missing for a couple of days there? When I found him, he was nearly dead. He hadn't drinken in days and he was barely breathing. I tried everything I could before resorting to letting him drink my blood. A little bit from my finger made him show signs of life, but then he pinned me down and bit my neck."

"Oh my god, are you alright? Why didn't you tell me this before?" Akane asked with worry.

"I couldn't. At least, I couldn't figure out how. When he drank from me Akane, it felt... great. It was the greatest feeling I've ever had in my life. Greater than a long soak in a hot spring or winning a big martial arts tournament or something... I don't even know how to describe it, but my whole body shook with pleasure in a way I just can't describe. It was amazing."

Akane blushed and covered her mouth at this revelation. "Oh, my..."

"It was the first time I've ever felt such a yearning desire to hold someone. Like, it was overwhelming, but I couldn't move. I didn't know what to do. When it was over, I couldn't stop smiling. I didn't even care that I was stuck as a girl for a whole day and a half. I was just so, so... content," Ranma finished.

She looked over to her blushing audience. "What does that mean, Akane? Tell me, please. I have no idea what to think of that. It's been driving me crazy."

"Ranma, it sounds like... like you're attracted to him. _Physically_," she said sadly. "That's how women get when they're... turned on. When they _want_ someone, y'know? Like... _that_."

Now it was Ranma's turn to blush as her eyes went wide with realization. "Y-you can't mean, like... Like I _wanted_ him to, to... with _me_... Oh god..." Ranma stared off into the distance, horrified by the news that she was attracted, physically, to, to... "No way, I can't be attracted to him, there's no way!" she cried, but Akane just gave her a sad, pitiable look.

"That's what it sounds like, Ranma. I just... did you never feel that way about me, at any time since we met? As a guy, I mean?" she dreaded asking because she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

All Ranma had to do was shake her head to confirm it.

"I guess this really is the end, isn't it?" she said with a sniff, tears threatening to return.

"I guess so..." Ranma agreed, not realizing Akane was talking about their relationship.

No, Ranma took that to mean the end of her manhood. That she couldn't even have sexual desires as a guy truly meant the end for Ranma Saotome, man among men. While her mind was screaming otherwise, her body definitely wanted one thing, and it wasn't what Akane had to offer.

"I need to go clear my head. I'll be back later," Ranma said, rising to her feet and stumbling her way back to the house.

Akane waited for Ranma to leave her sight before she got up and headed for her room. She needed a good cry after all of this.

Even Nabiki shed a tear for her sister, overhearing the conversation from her hidden microphones.

* * *

"Stupid Ryoga, why'd it have to be him, huh?" Ranma muttered to herself as she wandered aimlessly down the streets of Nerima. "Why couldn't it have been a gorgeous girl like Shampoo or something? Why'd it have to be _him_?"

'_Because he makes you feel good_,' a voice deep inside replied.

Ranma stopped walking to bash her head into the nearest tree. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! _STOP IT!_"

"But why? I brought you a gift and everything! Just please, come back to the farm with me for Christmas at the very least! Grandfather misses you! The pigs miss you! _I_ miss you!" a voice called from not too far away.

Ranma pulled herself up from the head-sized dent in the tree trunk. "Pigs?" she said quietly, looking over to find that not only was she in a park, but so were Ryoga and a girl just a bit taller than her, accompanied by a giant sumo pig. "Isn't that Akari?"

Ranma immediately ducked for cover behind some nearby bushes to listen in to the conversation.

"I told you Akari, I'm not interested. I just want to be alone, ok?" she heard Ryoga say.

"If you won't tell me what I did wrong, how can I fix it?" Akari said, genuine hurt in her voice.

'_This is hard to listen to_,' Ranma thought, second guessing her snooping.

"Akari, I've told you before, I don't like how you treat my cursed form," Ryoga said. "I _really_ don't like it."

"But look, I made you this sweater!" Akari said, holding up a small package.

Ranma peaked through the bushes to see Ryoga unwrap the gift to find a little sweater meant for a small animal, complete with four little leg holes.

"It's a sweater for when you're a pig! I made it myself!" Akari cried.

Ryoga was fuming and fighting hard not to throw the sweater into the mud. "Damn it Akari, don't you get it? I _HATE_ being a pig! I hate that you _LIKE_ me being a pig! I don't want a sweater for when I'm a pig, I never want to be a pig again! That's why I left you! I'm glad you are ok with my curse but you are WAY too ok with it. You like me more for the pig than you do for _me_!" Ranma heard him scream.

"But Ryoga, I... I love you," Akari quietly admitted, causing both Ryoga and the snooping Ranma to blush.

Ryoga quickly shook his off, though. "You love the pig, NOT me. And because of that, I can't love you. Besides, there's someone else I like."

'_Someone else he likes?_' Ranma repeated in her head, her heart sinking at the revelation. Why did that upset her so much?

"This is goodbye, Akari. For real this time."

"But, but I..." she cried. Ranma could hear the tears in her voice as it cracked.

"Go home," Ryoga said, turning to walk away.

After a moment of sobbing, Katsunishiki, Akari's prized sumo pig, put a hoof on her shoulder in comfort. She looked up at that friendly, pigly face and climbed on top of his back.

"You heard him, let's go," Ranma could hear her say, followed by the sound of loud hooves galloping away as fast as a pig could go.

Ryoga, seeing Akari run off, collapsed on a nearby bench and hung his head in his hands.

Ranma debated for a moment. Should she go say something, or go home? She couldn't leave him like that, alone and crying on a bench in the winter cold, so she got up the nerve to go say hi.

She approached him carefully and reached out a hand, pulling it back slightly for a moment as she second guessed her course of action, but ultimately reaching out and gently patting his shoulder.

"How ya holdin' up there, big guy?" she asked.

"Ranma?" Ryoga looked up to see the concerned face of his red-headed friend. "You saw that? What are you doing here?"

"I just had a rough talk with Akane and needed to clear my head, and I just wandered over here and... found you. Are you alright?" she asked, taking a seat next to him on the bench.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine. It's not the first time I've broken up with Akari," he said with a laugh. "I'm glad it's over though. I hate being so mean to such a nice girl, but it had to be done. What about you? What happened with you and Akane?"

Ranma gave a sheepish smirk. "Let's just say you're not the only one who broke up today."

This made Ryoga sit upright. "Really? You two really called it off, for real?"

"Yup! Talked about our future and what it's gonna be like and... some _other_ things..." she trailed off with a cough. "But it's over. We don't love each other. Never have, prolly never will," Ranma said with a sigh. "We won't be getting married. She's all yours, pal," she finished with a pat on his back.

Ryoga's mind was reeling. After all this time, he finally had a chance, but he couldn't bring himself to go for it. He didn't want a repeat of Akari. On top of that, Akane still didn't know that he was P-chan. When that came out... he'd rather not think about how bad it could be. "Nah, is she were ok with the curse, it'd be Akari all over again, just without the constant affection."

"Heh, Akane's not the type for bein' all lovey-dovey, that's for sure," Ranma spat.

"Have you told your parents yet? That you're not getting married?" Ryoga asked, but he had a feeling he knew the answer.

"No, I don't know how we're going to tell them. My mom is already mad that I gotta be a girl all the time, so I can just add this to the pile of reasons she has to kill me. 'Honorless son won't fulfil his duty to unite the schools'. 'Honorless son has to be a girl'." She scoffed, recalling her recent realization that she was even attracted to a guy. "I'm the epitome of unmanliness and it's only a matter of time before she hands me a tanto and tells me to get on my knees."

Ryoga couldn't believe how cavalier Ranma was being with her morbid thoughts.

"I guess it's better than jumpin' off a bridge," she mused, staring off into space.

"That's _it_, Ranma! Get up, right now!" Ryoga demanded, standing in front of her. "You need to get your mind off dying and there's only one way I know to do that."

"What's what?" she asked, eyeing him with an eyebrow raised.

"Fighting you. Come on, let's spar," Ryoga said, taking a stance.

"Right now? It's freezing out here!" Ranma countered.

"Fighting will warm you up! Let's do this," he said, taunting her with a hand gesture.

Ranma just frowned. "Maybe I don't feel like it, alright?"

"What's the matter, Ran_ko_, afraid you might break a nail?" he teased.

In a flash, her fist was in his face, but he caught it and used her momentum to flip her over his body.

When she landed, she was quick to roll back onto her feet and take a defensive stance. "That was low! You are SO dead, pork-breath!" she growled.

They fought right there in the open field of the park, not caring who saw or what got in the way. Several tree branches were cut and a dozen little craters were formed in the frosted dirt as they bounced around the field.

Mothers with their kids took them and fled the destruction the fighters left in their wake.

By now, they'd both warmed up to the point of ditching their jackets and Ranma had even performed a powerful Shi Shi Hokodan of her own that Ryoga was able to absorb by exuding his own depression aura at just the right moment.

"I didn't think you'd be able to pull that off," Ryoga commented in a lull between blows. As he caught his breath, he finally noticed that it was lightly snowing.

"I didn't study ya for nothin'," Ranma answered with a bright smile on her face, hopping in place to keep up her momentum.

Ryoga was glad to see that smile and couldn't help but give one of his own. His idea had worked, the spar really was cheering her up. He couldn't help but wonder when the last time Ranma truly smiled was. Well, when she wasn't drunk or high from his bite. The last time Ranma _truly_ smiled out of pure happiness. Was it before they were bitten? It had to have been.

It wasn't fair that he'd been so happy these last few weeks when Ranma's life was spiraling down the drain. Everything seemed to be going great for him. He was in school, the direction curse was lost, and he was reunited with his family. All his dreams were made reality thanks to being bit.

Well, all but one.

It was then that Ryoga's eyes began to wander over his opponent and he saw that the snow hitting her was melting from her body heat and causing her top to cling to her chest. And silk wasn't exactly thick.

Ryoga blushed, seeing two points sticking out of her shirt. "M-maybe we should call it here, Ranma. It's getting dark and the snow's gettin' bad," he said in an effort to get her to put her jacket back on.

"Not on your life, pal!" she replied, launching at him like a rocket and spinning with a roundhouse kick aimed straight for his face, but she missed.

She span around in a circle from the momentum and collapsed on the ground behind him in a bad landing that was unbecoming of her skill.

"How'd I miss? He was right.." she froze, looking to where Ryoga had been, but he'd suddenly vanished.

Her eyes went wide with a brief panic and she looked around for any sign of him before looking down and seeing a little black piglet in a wet bundle of clothing on the ground.

"Heh, I guess we're gettin' a little too damp out here, huh?" she said, going to pick him up and collect his clothes. "I guess we'll call this one a draw."

Ranma returned to the bench and set the piglet down so she could put on her own jacket and re-bundled his clothes in his jacket. Tying the arms tight so nothing would fall out, she hoisted the sack of clothing over her shoulder with one hand and picked up the piglet with the other, holder him under her arm.

"Your house is closer, right? Let's go there. I don't really wanna be around the dojo right now," she said.

Ryoga nodded, and they were off.

* * *

Shiori answered the front door surprised to see Ranma greet her with a bright smile and a piglet under her arm.

"Heya, Mrs. Hibiki. Can I come in?" Ranma asked.

"Yes yes, of course! You're soaked! Any longer out there and you'd catch a cold!" she said, stepping out of the way for the girl. "And _please_ call me Shiori! 'Mrs. Hibiki' makes me sound old!"

Ranma couldn't help but laugh a little at that. "Alright, alright, Shiori it is. Since your house is western-style, I guess you don't have a furoba, do you? This guy could use a soak," she said, holding up the piglet who looked none too pleased to be on display.

Shiori giggled at her son's expression with that cute little piggy face. "We do, actually! Upstairs, second door on the left. You look like you could use a bath too, you're freezing!"

"I am?" Ranma asked, tilting her head in confusion. "I feel just fine, we were just sparring out at the park."

"You may _feel_ warm, but your body says different," Shiori said, glancing down to the girl's chest and then meeting her eyes with a telling look.

Ranma glanced down and flushed when she saw what gave her away, and quickly pulled her coat closed with her free hand. "Heh heh, oops. Guess I gotta be more careful about that."

Shiori giggled again. "Don't worry about it, dear. Head on up to the bath and I'll fetch you some dry clothes."

"Thanks, Mrs.., er, Shiori," Ranma corrected herself.

She began making her way towards the stairs in the middle of the house and made sure to wave 'hello' to Checkers, Ryoga's black and white dog, who was laying by the fireplace to stay warm. Checkers lifted her head when Ranma walked by and gave her a short tail wag before laying back down.

"I shoulda said hi to your dog last time I was here," Ranma commented, dumping off Ryoga's wet clothes in the laundry room and setting Ryoga down on the floor.

"_Bwee!_" was all Ryoga could say to that.

Ranma opened the door to the bathing area proper and Ryoga ran straight to the faucet and began reaching his tiny little piggy arms out to the handle but he couldn't quite reach.

"Here, let me," Ranma said, reaching down to the handle herself and waiting for the water to warm up.

A few moments later, she stuck her hand under the stream and felt the instantaneous change that came with the warm flow.

"Ahh, that's better," he said, stretching his arms out and heading back to the laundry room to take off his wet clothes.

Ryoga ran right under the stream and began his scrubbing quickly.

When Ranma returned with a couple of towels, ready to do his own washing up, Ryoga was just finishing with a rinse and about to get in the tub.

For some reason, Ranma felt he was invading Ryoga's privacy somehow. Yeah, they'd seen each other naked and bathed together dozens of times. They're both guys, afterall. But in two months of living together, they hadn't done it once. Somehow, living as a girl for so long, Ranma had began to think it weird to bathe with him. Like it was some unspoken rule that he shouldn't.

Was it because he was usually a girl and he didn't want Ryoga to get any bright ideas?

He shook his head as if to shake the thoughts out of his mind and finished up his own washing.

He sunk into the opposite end of the large multi-person tub slowly, embracing the relaxing warmth as it enveloped his whole body. "Oooooh yeah, that's nice."

"You said it," Ryoga mumbled. He was slumped almost all the way into the water, with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. "After running around in the snow like that, this really hits the spot."

"Mhmm," Ranma agreed. A hot soak after such a cold and draining day really felt good on the bones. It was still one thing he could enjoy as a guy. At least, unless he was freshly bitten, aparently. Remembering his hot shower as a girl a couple of weeks ago, Ranma got an idea.

"Hey, Ryo? Next time I'm feelin' down like that, why not just bite me?" he offered, which snapped Ryoga up from his relaxed pose in an instant, so fast he felt a little woozy and had to hold the edge of the tub to stay up.

"Why would I do that?!" he nearly shouted. Wasn't biting people supposed to be a bad thing?

"It just... felt really good is all," Ranma blushed, breaking eye contact. "I-If it's anything like last time, I wouldn't even be able to make a weak Shi Shi Hokodan. It was like every shred of depressing ki left my body," Ranma mused aloud, remembering the intense pleasure he felt in that moment. "Not right now, though. You've seen me naked as a girl way too many times, you don't need to see that again," he said with a laugh, remembering that he'd change instantly if he was bit.

He abrubtled stopped, blushed, and turned away at the recollection that he, er, _she_ would be turned on by that. '_How could I forget about that?! And here I am, practically begging for it! Akane's right, I really am a pervert. I can't believe I actually asked him that! I need to end this conversation fast!_'

Ryoga blushed at the mental image and scowled at his friend. "I'll just stick to sparring if that's fine with you."

"A-Alright, just sayin', it'd do the job a lot faster..." Ranma replied with a lilt in his voice. '_Good, act natural. Play it off like a joke or something_.'

"Nu uh, you'll end up getting addicted to it," Ryoga said. "You need to quit cold turkey!"

'_Oh thank goodness_,' Ranma thought. "Fiiiiiine," he whined aloud, trying to save face. "That's probably for the best."

For a second there, Ranma was afraid that his friend might actually take him up on the accidental offer. '_It's a good thing Ryoga's such a stand-up guy. He'd never take advantage of me like that_.'

Ryoga, for his part, was lost in the idea of biting Ranma and hearing her moan with pleasure under his naked body in the warm water. He desparately needed a change of subject so he'd be able to stand up and get out of the tub. Clearing his throat, he asked, "So, is Akane gonna be alright with this?"

Ranma sighed, thankful for the new topic, even if it was a sad one. "I guess so, I'm not really sure. I think she knew this was a long time coming and just didn't want to believe it would actually happen. I think she was crying when I left."

"I see." Ryoga couldn't help but feel pity for the girl he considered his friend. She'd been trying for a while now to make things work between them, but it was actually over. What was she going to do? Would she tell her family and have them force a marriage right then and there? Or would they kick Ranma's family out? No matter what, this is guaranteed to ruin their Christmas par.. "Would you stop that damn tapping?! I can't think clearly!"

Ranma froze his hand, just realizing he'd been tapping his finger loudly on the side of the tub. "Oh, sorry."

"It's fine, I was just thinking about your situation there, and I think you two should wait until after Christmas to break the news," Ryoga offered. "You don't want that kind of bad blood right before the holiday."

"That's a good point, I didn't even think of that," Ranma said, absent-mindedly tapping again. "I hope Akane comes to the same conclusion. I really hope she hasn't said anything yet. Oh man, now I _really_ don't wanna go home tonight..." Ranma felt a chill go down his spine at the idea.

Ryoga reached out of the water and firmly grabbed Ranma's hand, forcing the tapping to stop. "When was the last time you drank?" he asked.

"Right after my bath last night. You know I have to sleep as a girl or I'll be up a hundred times throughout the night. It's hard enough sleeping at night these days anyway," Ranma said.

"And you haven't been a guy all day?" Ryoga asked, wondering just how long Ranma could go without a drink now.

"No, I can't. Kasumi made me promise after I snapped at her the other day, remember?" Ranma explained. "It's probably for the best anyway," he sighed.

Just then, they heard a knock at the door. "Ranmaaa, I'm setting some pajamas in the laundry room for you! They might be a bit big, but they should work until your clothes are dry."

"Thanks, Shiori!" Ranma called to the woman.

Shiori flinched at the unfamiliar voice before remembering that Ranma was supposed to be cursed, too. She shook her head and left back down to the kitchen.

"We should probably get going," Ryoga said, confident enough that he was able to stand up without embarrassing himself. Sure enough, he was right. He grabbed a nearby towel and threw it around his waist.

Ranma followed, doing the same, and when they got to the laundry room, he examined the clothes Ryoga's mother had left him. It was a light purple pajama set, a simple long sleeve top and bottoms with a draw-string waist. Unfortunately, they were pretty small for him.

Ryoga saw Ranma's frown as he held up the clothes. "Those gotta be mom's. Sorry about that. You want me to go grab you something from my room?" he offered.

Ranma sighed again. "Nah, I gotta change back anyway. May as well do it now. Go ahead and get dressed, I'll meet you downstairs," he said, setting the purple top back down and heading back into the bathing area to change.

Ryoga watched sadly as his friend closed the door behind him, but he did as he was told and left for the living room downstairs.

Ranma arrived a minute later wearing the purple outfit that hung just a little loose on her shoulders and ran long enough in the pants that she had to roll them up a fold or two, but the outfit still fit nonetheless.

"Ooooh, Ranma, you look so adorable in that outfit! It's like you're wearing your big sister's clothes!" Shiori gushed as she saw Ranma come down the stairs.

Ranma looked nonplussed. "Gee, thanks."

"And the color matches your eyes, too! Here, did you want something to drink?" she said, offering the smaller girl a cup of hot cocoa.

Ranma looked down into the swirling marshmallows and couldn't help but wonder if she'd ever had this before. Why would you put marshmallows in coffee? "Um... thanks, but could I get a glass of water? I gotta take a tablet soon. An early bath made me crave blood a little earlier than I was expecting."

"Sure thing, dear."

Once Ranma had that taken care of, she set down the half-drinken glass and eyed the steaming mug once more. She glanced to Ryoga who'd nearly finished his and glanced back to his mother. "What is this, anyway?"

Both of the Hibikis nearly spat out their drinks in surprise.

"Seriously? You've never had hot chocolate before?" Ryoga asked.

Ranma innocently shook her head.

"Give it a try, you'll like it!" Shiori encouraged. "Small sips, it's still hot."

Ranma nodded to her and warily took the warm mug to her lips.

She didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't this.

Her smile grew wider as she started drinking faster and faster and before she knew it, her mug was empty.

"Wow, that stuff's great. What'd you call it? Hot chocolate?" she asked, absolutely beaming.

"Yes, but try and drink it slowly next time, alright?" Shiori said. "It's meant to be savored."

Ranma rubbed the back of her head in shame at yet another social faux pas. "Sorry 'bout that."

"It's no big deal, dear. I'm just glad you liked it." Shiori glanced at the clock on the wall and to the kitchen window. It was nearly dark out now and the snow was coming down thicker and thicker. She walked up to the window to look out at the street, and sure enough, it was sticking. There was already at least four inches on the ground. "Oh no, Ranma, I'm afraid I might have to ask you to stay the night."

"Hmm? Why's that?" Ranma asked, taking her attention away from Ryoga's unfinished mug of cocoa.

"Your clothes won't be ready for at least an hour and it's snowing pretty badly out there. I can't ask you to go home in this weather, especially alone."

Ranma thought it over and decided this might be the perfect excuse to avoid her overbearing family and just relax for the evening. It was supposed to be a vacation, afterall. "Are you sure that's alright? I'm fine with it if you are," she said, turning to Ryoga.

Ryoga just frowned and turned his mug away from her prying eyes. "I don't care, I already live with you."

"Then it's settled. I'll call the dojo and let them know you'll be staying the night," Shiori said, heading towards the phone.

"Are ya sure? I can call if you want," Ranma offered, but Shiori waved the girl off.

"It's fine, I'd like to speak to Kasumi anyway. I want to know if I should bring anything for the party."

Ryoga finished his mug and took it to the sink, rejoining Ranma at the counter.

"So... what now?" Ranma asked. They couldn't fight here since he didn't have a dojo, and she didn't bring anything with her. She felt kind of ashamed realizing how boring and two-dimensional she really is. If martial arts weren't an option, she didn't know what to do with herself.

"We could go watch TV and hang out with Checkers," Ryoga offered, and knew it was the right thing to say when Ranma bloomed a smile and nodded at him. In a flash, Ranma had left her spot at the counter and gone off to the living room to sit next to Checkers by the fire.

Ryoga could only shake his head and smile at how easy it was to please the girl. Before heading off to join her, he shared a glance with his mom who just winked, causing him to blush and turn away. Just what does she think is going on, anyway? Whatever it was, it was just in her head!

'_There's nothing going on between us!_' he thought to himself as he plopped down next to his friend and his dog.

'_They're so cute together! It's hard to believe they're almost adults already..._' Shiori thought as the phone rang. "Oh! Hi, this is Shiori Hibiki, may I speak with Kasumi please?"

* * *

Later that night, when Shiori went to hit the lights and go to bed, what she saw in the living room was enough to make her heart swell. In the dwindling light from the dying fire, she saw Ranma and Ryoga asleep under a blanket in front of the fuzzy TV, with Checkers laying at their feet. Ranma was curled up for warmth under Ryoga's arm and resting her head on his shoulder as a pillow.

Both of them had warm smiles on their faces as they slept.

Shiori had to leave as quietly as she could to keep them from waking up and fought hard to keep back her squeals of glee. That had to be the cutest thing she'd ever seen.

* * *

The following morning, Ranma awoke cuddled up in a blanket next to a fluffy black and white dog, with Ryoga nowhere to be found. The sun was shining brightly through the sliding glass door and made even worse by the reflection of the fresh white snow. Ranma had to shield her eyes and could definitely feel a headache coming on. The amplified sunlight made her skin sting a little, too.

Groggily, she followed her nose to the kitchen where she found Ryoga taking a lesson in preparing eggs from his mother.

"Ok, now, flip!" Shiori cried and in a panic, Ryoga shot two fried eggs into the air, carefully catching them back in the pan without making a mess.

Ranma applauded from her seat at the breakfast counter. "I guess all that speed training with me was good for something afterall. Without our daily spars, I bet you woulda missed them," she said with a slight smile.

Ryoga grinned at her before giving his attention back to the skillet. "Mornin'. Did Checkers make a good pillow for you?"

Ranma looked down to the happy dog as she joined everyone in the kitchen for her own breakfast snack. "The best. Mornin', Shiori."

"Good morning, Ranma-chan. Sleep well?" Shiori asked with a knowing smirk.

Luckily for her, Ranma was completly oblivious to what she was implying. "Yeah but that sun's really givin' me a headache. Do you have anything for that?"

"Sure, dear. Just a moment." A moment later, Ryoga's mother brought Ranma a glass of water and set a bottle of aspirin down next to it, along with Ranma's own tin of artificial blood tablets. "In case you're thirsty."

"Thanks, but I think I'm still good from last night. Couldn't hurt, I suppose." Ranma dropped a tablet in and waited for it to fully disolve before using it to take the pain medication. Hopefully that would help, at least. "I just really wish I brought sunglasses with me. It was so gloomy out yesterday that I didn't need them."

"I'm sure you can deal," Ryoga said, bringing her a plate and sitting down next to her. Shiori took her own and leaned on the counter across from the kids to eat her breakfast. "The dojo's not too far from here."

"Thanks," Ranma said, accepting the heaping plate. She was thankful that Ryoga knew her appetite. The plate was loaded down with simple breakfast foods like hash browns, sausages, eggs, and even some pancakes. "What, no bacon?"

Ryoga froze and scowled at the girl. Seeing that look of pure hatred, Ranma shrunk back a bit. "S-sorry, I kinda forgot. Thanks for making me breakfast."

Ranma dug in and was delighted to find that the sausage wasn't too tough, the hash browns were nice and crisp, the eggs evenly fried, and even the pancakes were perfectly browned. "Wow, Ryo. I didn't know you were such a good cook."

"You're not the only one who grew up on the road, y'know. I've had to make my own meals for almost as long," he said before digging back in to his own plate. He didn't like to speak with his mouth full. Too many close calls when out camping by himself.

Shiori set her fork down and sighed, staring down into her plate. "Ryoga, I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you. I'm sorry you had to be on your own. I just hope that someday you'll be able to forgive me. Forgive _us_." Ranma thought she looked like she might cry.

Ryoga didn't like seeing this side of his usually happy-go-lucky mother. "Mom, it's ok. Really. I understand that you did what you had to do. Now that we're together again, that's all in the past."

Shiori sighed again. "It will be once this Kaori situation is taken care of."

* * *

An hour or so later found Ranma back in her own freshly cleaned and dried clothes and putting on her coat in the entranceway.

"Thanks for having me over, Mrs.. er, Shiori. I hope I wasn't a burden or anything," she thanked her hostess.

"Believe me, the pleasure was all mine. You're welcome any time," she returned with a smile.

"I guess I'm off then. I'll see you guys tomorrow, right?" she asked, thinking about the Christmas party. It was hard to believe that the day was already here.

"Of course! Should we be there by any special time?" Shiori asked, hoping everything was taken care of.

"Just whenever. The party's not goin' anywhere," Ranma said with a shrug.

Bracing herself for the harsh sunlight moreso than the cold, Ranma made for the door. "Bye Shiori, and thanks again. Ryoga..." she trailed off, turning to face him and for some unknown reason, losing her train of thought when she saw him standing there. "See ya tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya," Ryoga said, waving goodbye.

When she was out the door, it wasn't ten seconds before Ryoga's mother turned on him. "So what are you getting her?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" he asked.

"For Christmas! You have to get her a gift!" she pleaded.

"Why would I do that? We're just regular friends. We don't do that kinda thing."

"Ryoga Hibiki, I demand that you get that nice girl a gift for Christmas. She's having a really hard time right now and it would help to make her feel better," she commanded, putting her hands on her hips and causing Ryoga to shiver.

"A-alright, I guess you have a point! But what? I have no idea what to get her," he shrugged. "_Him!_ I keep forgetting about the curse." Why was she being so adamant about this? It's just some stupid holiday. It's nothing special, right?

"Oh yeah, me too," Shiori admitted, but that didn't change the kid's future. If what she was saying about her insatiable cravings as a guy was true, that kid was in for a rude awakening pretty soon here. "I don't know what to get her, but I'll give you some money to find something, ok? Today's your last chance so you'd better go get ready to leave."

Ryoga didn't like the stern look in his mother's eyes and he didn't want to risk finding out what fury those eyes could be hiding. To get so worked up over finding a gift for Ranma... she must really like her. "Alright, I'll go, but if you wanna get Ranma a gift so badly, why not go yourself?"

"No no dear, you're her best friend. This gift has to be from you," she answered with that knowing smile of hers.

* * *

Finally, the day before Christmas had arrived and the Tendo Dojo was bursting with life. Music was lightly playing throughout both the home and the dojo, and decorations were scattered all about.

Out in the dojo, near the stage, Kasumi had just set a multi-layered cake decorated with white frosting as a base, and little green and red trims all around it. Sticking out of the top, and hanging on a wooden skewer, was a delicately tied ribbon with large loops, made of a green and red patterned fabric. Around it were several snack trays and Kasumi was in the process of bringing in yet another.

"Sis, why all the food?" Nabiki asked, picking up one of the cookies for a little nibble. "You know we always order fried chicken, just like everyone else."

Kasumi just smiled her trademark smile and set down another tray. "Well you know how taxing it is for those delivery people every Christmas. If they're running behind, I don't want our guests to go hungry."

Nabiki guessed it made sense and walked away with a shrug. She was helping to decorate a small tree in the corner along with Akane.

"Why not just order some Ramen and orange chicken from the Nekohanten?" Akane asked her sister from across the dojo. "They're welcome to join as long as they don't cause any problems, right?"

"Well yes, Akane," Kasumi began, heading over to chat. "But I haven't heard from them since, well, you know," she said, glancing off to Ranma who was having an intense fight with his father in the yard. "The restaurant's been closed for months."

Akane froze at the news. They were taking this whole vampire thing more seriously than she expected. To just up and leave like that, abandoning their restaurant at a moment's notice... Cologne must think the situation's pretty dire.

"Strange that they haven't sent at least a letter," Akane pondered. '_I hope they find something helpful soon_,' she thought.

"Helloooo, anyone home?" a voice called from the main doorway.

The girls all looked over to find Ukyo holding a platter of food to add to the table. She was joined by her friend Konatsu, who was dressed very formally in a multi-layered kimono.

"Hey, guys," Akane greeted cautiously. If she remembered right, she hadn't seen Ukyo since the failed wedding, where she was partly responsible for everything falling apart. Thinking back on her relationship revelations over the last few days, she thought it might have been for the best that the wedding didn't go through, but she was still a little afraid that Ukyo might try something now. "What brings you here?"

Ukyo looked down to the floor in shame. "I came by to apologize for my past behavior and maybe bring a little Christmas cheer," she said, holding up the platter for emphasis. "Mrs. Saotome let us in. I just had a long apology with her over her house, so if it's alright with you, I'd like to make this one short."

"I'm sure she forgave you, Miss Ukyo," Konatsu said with a smile. "Mrs. Saotome is such an elegant woman, I can't imagine her holding a grudge for long."

The Tendo girls all shared a look.

"Well, as long as you promise to behave yourself, you're more than welcome to our party," Kasumi said, offering to take Ukyo's covered platter. When she placed it on the table, she found it contained two dozen miniature okonomiyaki, with the dough shaped like little trees. "Oh, how festive!"

"I promise. I realized after the, um... _wedding_... that Ranma was properly spoken for. I don't know how I'll break it to my father, but I think it's time I give up my claim on him." It took Ukyo a long long time to come to that conclusion, to just let it all go, but she had to admit that it felt good to finally tell Akane and her family. Maybe now they could work on being real friends. "Ranma is still my oldest friend though, and when I heard what happened, you can only imagine how worried I was."

"She closed the shop for three whole days after you left!" Konatsu added, completely oblivious to the glare Ukyo was giving her female-presenting friend.

"So, is it true? That it's getting worse to the point where he... needs to stay cursed all the time?" Ukyo carefully asked, not quite ready to accept the truth of the matter. "Heh, I still find it hard to believe that vampires are real, but with Jusenkyo and all..."

"See for yourself," Akane told her, motioning towards the open yard where Ranma and Genma were battling it out.

"You've gotten soft, boy! You're spending way too much time as a girl at this 'school' of yours!" Genma taunted.

"Yeah? Well whose damn fault is that, old man?!" Ranma roared, dashing in for another attack.

A flurry of fists and a keggle of kicks went by in a mid-air blur, to the amusement of the audience.

When they landed again, Genma was panting heavily and bleeding gently from a scratch on his cheek. "You're... still no match... for your old man!" he managed to get out between ragged breaths.

Ranma didn't respond. His eyes flashed dark at the sight of the blood and he dashed toward his father at lightning speed, too fast for Genma to see, and held him in an arm lock from behind his back.

"B-boy!" he struggled. "What are you up to?!"

Ranma didn't respond.

He bit into his father's neck without warning, and without his fangs he had to cause him considerably more pain to be able to draw blood.

But it wasn't good enough.

"Puh!" he spat. "Disgusting! Just like you."

"Ran-chan, stop it!" Ukyo cried.

Ranma looked up to see two little spatulas heading straight for his face, and it was too late to dodge. They both hit him square in the forehead, launching him straight back into the freezing pond.

"Geez, what'd you do that for, Uuchan?" Ranma cried when she surfaced. The two spatulas were wedged into her skull but not very deep. It was enough to make her bleed, though. She pulled her hand down from her wound and sniffed the blood on her fingers. She even decided to taste it. To her surprise, it actually did taste pretty sweet. "Huh, no wonder. Good thing Ryoga's not here yet or he'd be all over me," she said to no one in particular.

"What the hell was that, boy?! Are you trying to kill me? After all I've done for you?!" Genma bellowed, with the faintest hint of hurt in his voice.

"It'd be a Christmas miracle," Ukyo deadpanned. Regardless of her feelings towards Ranma, she could never forgive that fat old jackass for what he did to her family.

"Sorry Pops, I couldn't really help myself," Ranma said, making her way to the dojo and warmth.

Akane was there to greet her right away with a towel and some bandages. She carefully pulled the spatulas out and held a clean rag to the wound. "How long was it that time?" she asked.

Ranma sighed. "It doesn't matter. The sight of blood set me off. "

Angrily, Genma made his way to the dojo's first aid kit to help himself. "You have a lot more training to do to control those urges of yours, boy. Until then, you'd best stay that way both as punishment and for the safety of everyone here."

"Heh, like I have a choice," she scoffed.

"Sorry I hurt you, Ran-chan," Ukyo said, going up to the two shorter girls. "I just did the first thing that came to mind. I hate the bastard, but I couldn't bare to see that happen."

"It's ok, Uuchan. I don't blame you. Sorry for scaring you, though," Ranma said, turning to her old friend. "If I'd seriously bit him, as a girl, he'd already be dead. He's lucky I was a guy."

Over by the first aid kit, Genma shuttered. Had he really come that close to death? He didn't want to find out.

"Still," Ranma continued, more to herself than her friends. "That's never happened before. Snapping and trying to drink from someone as a guy, I mean. Kinda scary."

Ukyo blinked at this. "You don't normally drink blood as a guy?"

"I can't," she shrugged. "When I'm a guy, I'm fully human, but I still get all the negative side effects of a vampire who hasn't drinken. That's why I gotta stay as a girl most of the time."

Ukyo couldn't help but pity her old friend. "I'm so sorry to hear that, Ran-chan. At least you're still human, right? Better to live as a girl than spend all your time as a vampire duck or something," she mused with a giggle at the mental image of Mousse's cursed form with fangs hanging out of his bill.

Ranma sighed at that. "Yeah, yeah, that's what everyone keeps tellin' me, but it's hard, y'know? It's hard to give up my quest to be a 'man among men' when that's all I really know."

Ukyo put a hand on her shoulder in sympathy. "You'll pull through this, I'm sure. Hell, you could probably be a woman among women if you set your mind to it! You're already the best fighter here!" she offered with a cheery smile that she hoped would cheer Ranma up a bit.

"Heh, I might have to, Uuchan. So long as I don't have ta wear any girly clothes or nothin'."

Akane coughed, remembering how cute Ranma looked dressed in her white night class uniform, with panties and tights and all. Couldn't get much girlier looking than that.

"Speaking of Ranma, would you mind coming with me?" Kasumi asked, surprising the girls.

"Sure, Kasumi. What's up?" Ranma asked.

"You need to get out of those wet clothes fast if you don't want to get sick in this weather," she explained. "And there's something I'd like you to try on for the party tonight."

Ranma's shoulders sagged, expecting some silly dress. Every year at Christmas, Kasumi got her in some silly dress for the holiday, and usually made her join them on stage for karaoke. "Do I haveta?"

"Please?" Kasumi pleaded with that manipulatively innocent smile of hers.

'_Sometimes I think she's mastered the school of Kindness Martial Arts or somethin'_,' Ranma thought, silently following Kasumi out of the dojo and into the house.

* * *

Throughout the house echoed the sound of bells, alerting everyone to the presence of someone at the front door. The outer gates had been left open, with balloons adorning each side, so guests could walk straight up to the house's entrance. They made sure to leave the dojo's entrance open too, just in case.

"Oh, those must be the first guests! Would you mind getting the door, Ranma?" Kasumi asked as she tended to a pot on the stove. She was preparing a large pot of soup to put on the snack table along with a stack of small soup bowls for people to enjoy it with.

Ranma sighed from her place at the dining table where she was casually sipping some tea. "Do I haveta?" she pleaded. "This outfit's so embarrassin'."

Soun looked over with a scowl from his shogi game with Genma. "Ranma! If Kasumi asks you to do something, you do it!"

Ranma frowned but got up and headed for the door. '_Geez, get over it already. She's not even mad anymore. If I didn't have to dress up like this every year, I'd think she was punishing me_.'

When she answered the door, she was met with a curious sight. Waiting there was a tall man, almost as tall as Soun Tendo, with a chisled jaw and light facial hair. The cuts on his face and his dark complexion made her think he was a battle-hardened traveler, reminding her a bit of Ryoga. When she looked up and saw a solid black bandana with yellow spots adorning his head, she couldn't help the sheepish grimace that spread across her face.

"Hi, you must be Mr. Hibiki," she greeted.

The man immediately shot his hand to hers, pulling it up and forcing her into a rough handshake. "And you must be the Ranma Saotome I've heard so much about! Your red hair is a dead giveaway! It's a pleasure to finally meet you, my dear!"

"P-p-pleasure's a-a-ll m-m-i-i-ne," she managed to get out through the jerky vibrations yanking her whole body up and down with each shake.

Finally he let go of her hand and she immediately pulled it back and began massaging the pain with her other hand. "Come on in, party's in the dojo out back. You're the first ones here, but make yourselves at home."

Ryoga's father walked past, greeting and introducing himself to Mr. Tendo on his way through the dining room, followed by Shiori and finally Ryoga.

"Ryoma's come home for Christmas, isn't it wonderful, Ranma?" Shiori asked as she met the girl in the entranceway. "Oh Ranma, that dress is lovely on you!" she gushed, taking in the smaller girl's dark green long-sleeve dress. It was a slightly modified version from the one Kasumi made her wear at the Christmas party two years ago, with a higher skirt and a boat neck. Luckily, Kasumi let her wear black fleece-lined tights underneath to combat the cold.

"You can thank Kasumi for it, it was her idea. It's always her idea."

Finally, her eyes met Ryogas to find he had been staring at her the second he walked in. He seemed to be locked in his gaze, so much so that Ranma had to turn away and blush. "Not a word, pork-breath! Not. A. Word."

Ryoga stood in his uncharactaristically nice outfit of slacks and a button up, taking in the sight of Ranma in her dress. The dark green certainly went well with her dark red hair and porcelain white skin. Was she wearing lipstick, too? "Looks like Kasumi really went all out with you," he finally managed to say.

Ranma scowled and turned even redder, finally opting to just walk away. They were guests for a party, it might upset the Tendos if she beat their guest to a bloody pulp the second he arrived.

Shiori couldn't help but giggle at the adorable scene.

* * *

Hours later, the party was in full swing. The fried chicken had arrived on time and guests had piled into the dojo, chatting away with plenty of drink and food to go around. Several people were applauding over by the stage while others sang their drunken hearts out on a rented karaoke machine.

In the back of the room, Nodoka was sat on a pillow, happily watching everyone having a great time while gently sipping on a warm cup of sake.

"Mind if I join you?" a voice asked from above.

Nodoka looked up to find a blonde woman in a green and white kimono, with blonde hair tied up in a bun, holding another bottle of sake along with a small glass of her own.

"Not at all, Miss...?" Nodoka asked, motioning for the woman to take a seat on the pillow across from her, which she gladly did.

"I'm Shiori Hibiki, Ryoga's mother. And you must be Nodoka Saotome. You're the spitting image of Ranma," she said, topping up Nodoka's cup.

"Nice to meet you. I hear our sons are getting along quite well despite the... circumstances," Nodoka said, taking another sip.

"If they weren't friends before, they certainly are now!" Shiori agreed. "I understand this transition might be hard for you, but I wanted you to know, you can talk to me or my husband any time you need." She cautiously looked around, making sure nobody could overhear before adding, "We're vampires too, you see."

"Really?" Nodoka was astonished to meet more of them. She'd seen Kasumi with this woman over the last month here and there, but she would never have guessed that she was a vampire, too. "But does that mean Ryoga was born that way? But he turned when he was bitten that night, alongside Ranma, I thought."

Shiori shook her head. "That's a bit of a long story, but to keep it short, we put him into hiding and the bite unlocked his true form. That's part of the reason I wanted to talk to you, actually. Tell me, what do you know of little Ranma's curse and how it plays into all of this?"

Nodoka had to think for a minute and sighed, staring down into her drink. "I feel... like I'm losing my son. He can't be a man for more than a short while, and when he's in his cursed form, I-I feel guilty thinking that he may have to be that way to live a normal happy life. I really don't want to have to kill my only son."

Shiori nearly spat out her drink. "What?!"

"Of course, I'd be his kaishuku, and I'd follow right after," Nodoka added, casually sipping her drink.

The way she said all of this like it was completely normal was blowing Shiori's mind. "I... think you need to give me some context here. Why on Earth would you have to kill Ranma for being a girl?"

"Oh, silly me, of course you haven't heard. You see, it all started with a pledge when Ranma was a toddler..." Nodoka began with a smile, as if ritual suicide pacts and ten year journeys to become 'men among men' were perfectly average normal things.

After the long story of Ranma's training journey, reuniting with him as 'Ranko', and the heroic way he saved her life, she finished with a brief recap of her damaged house and the infamous failed wedding.

"So you see, I'm afraid Ranma won't be able to live up to the pact afterall," she finished.

Shiori was completely flabergasted by the story. This had to count as child abuse or something! '_It's a good thing Ranma's almost an adult. After high school, she'll be free to leave this crazy family if she wants_,' Shiori thought.

Clearing her through, she decided to broach the main subject here. "So, if Ranma's stuck as a vampire like this for the rest of her life, even if she's happy, you'd still go through with it?"

Nodoka sighed. "It's my duty as the matriarch of the Saotome family to uphold its honor."

Shiori's jaw dropped. "Even though no sane person would consider a two-year-old's handprint legally binding?"

"It's my duty," she said with a very sad smile.

Shiori couldn't believe what she was hearing. No wonder Ranma was so miserable. Just when it looked like she might have accepted her fate as a vampire and thus as a woman, she'd get so moody and depressed, and now Shiori knew why. It was because Ranma knew what fate awaited her if she dared to find peace and move on.

Shiori looked off through the crowds and sadly watched as Ranma and her friends were smiling and laughing and having the time of their lives. The care-free look in her eyes. The way her smile lit up when Ryoga told her a joke. "I couldn't do it," Shiori muttered, shedding a tear.

"Sorry? I didn't catch that," Nodoka said, leaning in closer to hear.

"I couldn't go through with something like that. I missed out on most of my son's life too, thanks to the spell's counter-effects. While he was lost, he even gained a Jusenkyo curse of his own."

"Really? What does he turn into? A panda?" Nodoka asked, having never seen Ryoga's transformation.

"A piglet. A small little defenseless piglet. When I found out, I was shocked to say the least, but it was clear to me that even when he was a pig, he was still Ryoga inside. Don't you see that with Ranma? Regardless of her form, she's still the bright and upstanding fighter your husband raised."

"I do see it, I do. After he saved my life, I even declared that he was a man through and through. But now, I'm just not so sure. He's spending so much time as a girl that I don't know what to think."

"Is that really so bad though? At least she's human. She could be stuck for life as a vampiric piglet, doomed to be eaten in the wild or to die after a pig reaches the end of its natural lifespan. I don't even know how long that is. But I would be prepared to care for my son and make his life as happy as possible if he were trapped as a pig for the rest of it. If he willingly chose to end it, I..." she sniffed, letting loose another tear at the idea. "I would have no choice but to support him. It would kill me inside too, but I couldn't force him to live that hell for my sake."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I have to admit, I would too. I guess, in a way, to be 'unmanly' for life would be a hell of his own..." Nodoka quietly said, thinking the worst about Ranma. Surely her super manly son hated being a girl with every fiber of his being. There's no way a true man would ever find peace with such a fate.

"But what if it wasn't? What if, as 'unmanly' as it is, he came to terms with it and was prepared to stay that way if he had to? What's the reason you need him to be so manly for anyway?" Shiori thought that she was being a bit too forward, but felt it needed to be pressed nonetheless. "Why is death a better alternative to 'unmanliness'?"

"For a martial arts family like ours, honor means everything. It's not so much that he's happy or not, what matters is that he swore an oath to do it. He could have sworn an oath to do anything and so long as he fulfilled it, everything would be fine. It's just so unfortunate that he happened to swear THIS oath when later in life, this would all happen to undo it. Don't get me wrong, Mrs. Hibiki, I love my son more than anything. It hurts knowing what I might have to do."

"Please, call me Shiori," she corrected.

Nodoka smiled. "Shiori, yes. I love my son and I want him to be happy and make the most out of any circumstance, this included. A martial artist learns to adapt and thrive no matter what happens! Even when I knew him as 'Ranko', he made me so happy. 'Ranko' brought meaning to my life when I was all alone. I cherished every moment with her. While I hate the idea of losing the son I just got back into my life less than a year ago, a daughter would be a great consolation prize."

Shiori nodded. Now this was progress. Just a little more, and she'd be able to tell Nodoka the hard truth about Ranma's future. "And best of all, she's still Ranma on the inside. She's still the same brave fighter, and one of the nicest kids I've ever met. I love having her around too."

"But all this speculation is for naught," Nodoka frowned, downing the last of her cup in one swift gulp and pouring another. "The fact remains that he signed a contract on his honor as a martial artist, and if he's stuck as a girl thanks to this, this... _DAMN_ vampire curse," she paused to down another cup's worth of sake, "then the contract must be fulfilled. Do you think I _WANT _to kill my only son?! Do you think I _WANT _to destroy my lineage in one fell swoop?! This contract has brought us nothing but pain and misery! It's cost me ten years of Ranma's life, and now it wants the rest of it!" she yelled.

And then she broke down in sobbing, which surprised Shiori coming from such a normally placid woman. "My son is _afraid _of me. The way he looks at me, the way he shies away, it hurts so much knowing I can't even be there for him now when he needs me most. He avoids me whenever he can. He's afraid to be in the same _room_ as me! It's like I'm the grim reaper, carrying this damn honor blade around!" she said, pulling the blade from its sheath and waving it around in the air.

"Hey, slow down there, Mrs. Saotome," Shiori cautioned, carefully pulling the sake bottle away from the emotional woman. '_What have I done? This must really be eating at her_,' she thought. "Let's just go ahead and put the sword dooown... good, that's it... Now just relax, deep breaths..."

This contract was the real problem here, not Ranma's mother as she initially believed. She loved her child no matter what, it's just the damn family honor that got in the way. The promise had to be fulfilled, regardless of circumstance. It's times like this that Shiori was glad her family was American.

And from what she heard about Ranma's father, honor didn't really matter much to him as it was, unless it got him the dojo as a dowry.

'_If only we could void that contract somehow..._'

Suddenly, an idea struck her. "Say, why don't you just draw up a new contract? One to reflect the current circumstances?"

Through silent tears, Nodoka sniffed and looked back up at her counterpart. "Hmm? What do you mean?"

"I mean, you could write a new contract that frees Ranma from that burden and makes the previous one null and void! That could work, right? All that old contract has served to do is destroy your family and if it had its way, it'd have your family all dead, too. If I had any say, I'd chuck that thing in a fire and pretend it never happened!" Shiori was beside herself with excitement at this idea. Oh, how she'd love to burn that thing until nothing was left.

"But, our family honor would still be..." Nodoka trailed off, trying to run this all over in her mind. "I can't just burn it. Otherwise I would have a long time ago. Ranma didn't even know what he was signing, even I can see that."

"Then write up a new one that makes the old one invalid. Or better yet, you could write up an addendum to it and just have everyone re-sign it," she offered, fire in her eyes.

"An addendum? How does that work?" Nodoka asked. She was starting to get light headed from all she drank. "Nabiki!" she called, rising to her feet and yelling over the crowd.

Shiori had to stand too to keep Nodoka from stumbling over.

"Nabikiiii, where are youuu?" Nodoka called.

Minutes later, Nabiki finally showed up in a huff. "Shh, keep it down, would you? You're causing a scene!" she chided as she helped Mrs. Saotome sit back down. "Now what did you need from me?"

"Nabiki-chan, this nice lady here had an idea that I'm not sure would work to keep my family honor intact. You do contracts a lot, don't you?" Nodoka asked, her voice edging on slurred.

"Yeeeesss..." Nabiki drew out, wondering just how in the world Mrs. Saotome learned that about her. "Is this about the seppuku pledge?"

"Yup!" Nodoka chirped and then immediately hiccupped. "I need to know if an addendum could work. Do you know about addendums? Is that something I can even do?" she asked.

Nabiki grinned, seeing Ranma's mother sloshed like this. It was just a shame she didn't have a camera on her. "Mrs. Saotome, not a court in the world would hold that pledge up as valid, but if you want to change it, I can help. I just need you to be willing to sign some things to make it all official. Can you do that?"

"Just so long as all three of us read it first!" she said, swaying a little before being caught by Shiori. "I don't want anyone to feel threatened by me anymore. I..." she sniffed, the tears starting all over again. "I don't want to lose my family again! I lost them for ten years and I just barely got them back! I don't want to have to end our line like this. It's not fair!" she bellowed.

Nabiki looked over to Shiori and raised her eyebrow. "What the hell did you do to her?"

Shiori just shrugged. "Hey, I just got her talking. It must have been hard for her to talk about to drink so much."

"But she did anyway and now she's ready to undo that stupid contract," Nabiki summarized. "Alcohol's a good lubricant, I'll have to remember that."

"I'd love for Ranma to have a real family again after she played a part in reuniting mine," Shiori said. "Do you really think this will work?"

"Maybe. It's not about convincing anyone but Mrs. Saotome herself. If I word it right and get them all to sign it while she's out, then at least she won't be able to act," Nabiki elaborated. "But I have a feeling that if she doesn't like it, she won't uphold it. She might declare it invalid because it was signed through dishonorable means."

"Oh, don't worry. If there's one thing I've learned about her tonight, it's that upholding an honor-bound contract is something she's willing to die over, no matter how stupid it is," Shiori said with a kind smile.

"Good point," Nabiki agreed, throwing one of Nodoka's arms over her shoulder. "I have a computer in my room where we can get this all typed up. Mind helping me carry her, Mrs...?"

"Hibiki, but please, call me Shiori," she said, gladly throwing Nodoka's other arm around her neck.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other end of the dojo, a small group of friends were chatting and laughing away.

"I'm gonna hit up the snack table, anyone wanna come with?" Ukyo offered. Naturally, Konatsu was right at her side and ready for anything, but the rest of the group seemed a little more reluctant.

Well, everyone but Akane.

"Sure, I'll go. I want to try one of your okonomiyaki trees," she said with a smile.

"You're gonna love 'em, Sugar," Ukyo said, returning a smile of her own.

Together, they walked off and loaded up a small plate of snacks to share.

"Now that it's just us, Akane," Ukyo began, sending a snide glance over to Ryoga and Ranma. "How are things going between you two? Made any progress with him yet?"

Akane's bright Christmas cheer was instantly evaporated by the harsh reminder of reality. "Actually, Ukyo, I have something to tell you about that..."

* * *

"So, uh..." Ryoga began, seeing he was alone with Ranma in the crowd of people. He had no idea what to talk about but he couldn't stand an awkward silence like this, so he just began with the first thing he thought of. "What's with the outfit?"

Ranma scowled at him. "I told ya, it's Kasumi's doing! She does this every year!"

"Oh," Ryoga said. He didn't know where to go with the conversation so he ended it with an honest appraisal. "Looks nice."

Ranma's cheeks tinged pink and she turned away from her friend. "What about you, huh? What's got you dressed up so nice for?"

"My mom told me we had to dress up for Christmas, and this is what I had. It works, right?" he asked.

Ranma finally looked back and pored him over. He was wearing a nice yellow button-up top with black slacks. She never thought she'd see the day when he would wear such an outfit, yet here he was. She had to admit, it looked nice on him, but with how clean and formal it was, it _DID_ clash with one thing...

"Yeah, it works. Everything but the bandana," she said. Despite Ryoga's best effort to dress nice, it was undermined by his yellow bandana with the black dots that he always wore. It almost looked to her like a drunk office worker who wrapped his tie around his head.

Ryoga let out a short laugh. "I had to keep _something_ of me intact if I had to dress up like this. I bet you did the same thing."

Ranma's heart sank as she realized she handn't. She was wearing nothing to mark her as Ranma Saotome, not even those blue wrist bands she used to wear. '_Not even the boxers_...' she thought with a cringe.

"I guess I'll take your silence as a no, then," Ryoga said. He needed a change of subject and was coming up with a blank until he glanced over to see the girls at the snack table in an animated conversation of their own. "So how is Akane doing with... you know."

Ranma was thankful to take the conversation in a new direction, even if it was such a melancholy one. "She's taking it pretty well, actually. She still gives me these sad looks now and then, but she's not mad at me. If anything, we're acting like actual friends now that the marriage isn't hanging over our heads."

"That's good to hear. Did you still get her something for Christmas?" Ryoga asked, feeling Ranma's gift still in his pants pocket.

"Yeah, I got her these white gloves with little ducks on 'em, like the one hanging on her bedroom door. I thought they'd suit her," Ranma said. "I already gave them to her."

"Heh, I bet she liked those," Ryoga laughed. "What'd she end up giving you, though?"

Ranma's expression turned non-plussed as she thought about it. "You're not gonna believe it, pal. She gave me the same thing, only she sewed on a different animal by herself. Here, I'll show you," she said, guiding Ryoga along into the house and finally into the empty dining room.

Sitting on the table were a pair of navy blue winter gloves with what Ryoga could only assume was some sort of lizard on them. "It's... a gecko, right?" he speculated, squinting his eyes and turning the gloves to try and make out the image.

"They're supposed to be wolves."

Try as he might, Ryoga just couldn't see how those stitches could possibly be wolves. It looked like something a third grader would sew. "Well, I guess it's the effort that counts, right?"

"I guess so," she shrugged, taking the gloves and putting them back where they were.

Ryoga realized now was his chance. They were all alone and they were already talking about gifts, so it wouldn't be awkward at all to bring his up now. He felt so strange giving a gift to his long-time rival for Christmas, but his mother had insisted on it. It took him a whole day of searching every crowded shop he could before he found something that Ranma might like. Or at least, something she wouldn't take the wrong way. Didn't his mother know that Christmas was supposed to be a romantic holiday? He didn't want to be sending the wrong message to his friend with this.

Clearing his throat, Ryoga gripped the gift tight in his pocket and said, "Well, uh, since you're havin' a hard time and all, my mom thought that maybe I should.."

He couldn't stand the pressure from Ranma's curious eyes as he spoke. "T-that I should..." he trailed off.

"Should what?" Ranma asked with that innocent little head tilt she did without even thinking about it.

'_Gaaah, why does she have to look so cute when she does that?! And dressed up like this, it feels like I'm giving a gift to my girlfriend or somethin'! Damnit Mom, why'd you make me do this?!_' he mentally screamed.

"Ranma! There you aaaaare~!" a slurred voice called, approaching the two teens.

They both looked over to see Ranma's mother stumble into the dining room, using her sheathed sword as a cane to hobble over.

"Ranma, I've done it! This nice angel came to me on Christmas and made everything alright!" she said, dropping down into a seat at the table.

Ranma watched with amusement as she sat. Was her mother actually drunk? Steps behind her, Shiori and Nabiki joined Nodoka at the table and Shiori motioned for the two to sit as well.

Curious, Ranma did as she was told and sat down next to her intoxicated mother.

Ryoga, thankful for the distraction, sat down next to his.

"What's this all about?" Ranma asked. "I don't think I've ever seen Ma this toasted before," she said with a bemused smile. "Nabiki, please tell me you got her on video or somethin'."

Nabiki laughed and shared a smile back. "Are you kidding? Of course I did! I can't wait to see her reaction when she's sober."

"Sober shmober," Nodoka slurred. "Ranma, I got you something important. Soooo important. Soooo... where'd I put it?" Nodoka began slowly reaching into the pockets of her sleeves to find a sheet of paper that Nabiki was holding. Nabiki set it down on the table for Ranma to see. "Oooh, there it is! Thank you, Nabiki."

"What's this...? Another contract?" she dreaded, looking the document over. "No, this can't be right." She had to double-take and read it again in full.

"This document is an addendum to the contract signed by both Genma Saotome and Ranma Saotome that declared that Genma must raise Ranma to become a 'man among men'. If he failed, they would both be made to perform seppuku to retain the family's honor.

"This addendum clarifies the meaning of the phrase 'man among men' to refer to Ranma becoming a great martial artist who would gain the respect of his peers, and to be an upstanding representative of the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts.

"This addendum further clarifies that the phrase was never meant to be taken literally in terms of fulfilling the contract. It is a pledge to live one's life honorably, facing life's hardships with honor and integrity, regardless of what life may bring. Should he fail to uphold honor, integrity, and respect amongst his peers in the art, the only way to regain that honor and appease the ancestors would be to perform seppuku.

"The following persons have been witness to the signing... Hand-print here..." Ranma muttered, and turned her eyes to Nabiki. "What's this all mean?"

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Do I have to spell it out for you?"

Suddenly, Nodoka wrapped her son turned daughter in a great big hug. "You're free, Ranma! You're finally free! With this addendum to clear up any miscon-*hic*-ceptions about the original contract, you don't have to worry anymore!"

Ranma couldn't believe this was actually happening. "What about the curse?" She was almost afraid to ask, but had to be sure.

This time, it was Shiori who explained, placing a hand over Ranma's on the table. "It doesn't matter what form you're in. As we worked out with your... _very_ agreeable mother, the original meaning of the seppuku pledge was to raise you to be an upstanding citizen and honorable martial artist. It just used some colorful language that led to an unfortunate misunderstanding when Jusenkyo got involved."

"You can blame my husband for that one," Nodoka added with another hiccup. "He's the one who wrote it, afterall. How were we supposed to know that Ranma would one-day fall in a magical spring?"

Ranma turned her gaze back to Nabiki for confirmation. She could feel herself trembling. "Is this for real? No loopholes?"

"No loopholes. This addendum has been carefully worded to fix the original pledge, which was never meant to account for your sex," Nabiki clarified. "You're still beholden to the original pledge's intention though, of becoming an honorable martial artist."

"Which he's proven he is time and time again~!" Nodoka cried with a happy smile, going in for another glomp of a hug. "It's finally over! We can be a family again! And you won't have to be afraid of me anymore."

Ranma froze in shock from this unexpected turn of events. She was free. She wouldn't have to die just because this vampire crap made her be a girl most of her life. She wouldn't have to act overly-masculine around her mother anymore just to survive. She was _free_.

And the tears streaming down her smiling face were proof.

"Ranma, go ahead and sign here, and I'll need a hand-print here later just because you did it on the original..." Nabiki said, pointing out the lines on the paper with a pen. "And I'll go get the panda to make this all official. Merry Christmas, Ranma."

"Merry Chrishmash, Ranko dear..." Nodoka mumbled as she passed out on the table.

Thankfully, she'd already signed her line on the page.

Ranma was quick to scribble her own to seal the deal.

"This can't be real. Ryoga, pinch me," she begged.

Ryoga socked her in the arm.

"Ow! I said _PINCH_ me, not _PUNCH_ me!" she cried, rubbing the sore spot.

"Oops, I guess I misheard you," Ryoga apologized, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm really happy for you, Ranma. That's gotta be a huge load off your chest."

"Yeah, a massive one! That stupid contract's been ruining all of our lives since before I even knew about it. This feels so unreal. I think... I think I need to go lay down for a minute..." she got up, placing a hand on her head and stumbling towards the stairs, leaving Ryoga with his mother at the table.

"Go on, follow her," Shiori insisted. "Now's your chance to give her your gift, while she's in a good mood."

"Do I have to? Isn't the contract gift enough?" Ryoga whined, but Shiori shook her head.

"Trust me. You will make a great night even better."

Ryoga swallowed and nodded to his mother before getting up from the table and heading towards the stairs.

When he found Ranma, she was in the guest room her family shared, sitting in the darkness and staring at the stars out the window. One star in particular seemed especially bright. The only light in the room was the bright moonlight reflecting on the streaks the tears were making down her face.

Ryoga gulped. '_Here goes nothin'_...'

"Ranma, I got you something," he said, pulling out a small package and sitting down next to her. "I know it can't compare, but I hope you like it anyway." He handed the small package over and Ranma gave him a curious look. "M-my mom said I should get ya something..." he said, rubbing the back of his head.

Ranma accepted the small package and turned it over. It was very light and wrapped in snowflake-patterned paper. Carefully, she removed the paper to reveal a small gray box with a hinge. Prying it open, it snapped into place revealing an ornate Chinese dragon on a gold chain, with detailed scales and a red ruby eye.

Ranma looked back up to Ryoga with a blank expression, simply saying, "A necklace is kinda girly, don'tchya think?"

Ignoring the irony of that being said by a gorgeous girl wearing a green dress and makeup, Ryoga explained, "It's a dragon so I thought you might find it cool. More than that, check out the head. It opens up to reveal a tiny compartment. I think it's meant for a picture or something, but you can easily fit one or maybe two blood tablets in there. It's waterproof, too."

Ranma found the hidden clasp on the dragon's head that was disguised as waving hair and opened it up to find a little pocket inside, just barely big enough for one of Cross' artificial blood tablets.

"I know you're really struggling right now, so I thought that if you kept a tablet in there, you'd always have an emergency one to chew when it gets too rough."

"...and maybe I could spend more time as a guy without worrying," she added. "Thank you, Ryoga. You really put a lotta thought into this," she quietly said, stunned at the care he put into the gift. With everything that happened this evening, and then such a practical gift from her best friend, she had to fight back the well of emotions that threatened her drying eyes. '_Stupid estrogen_,' she thought.

Awkwardly clearing her throat to fight back the blush threatening her happy cheeks, she added, "a-and I guess the dragon's pretty cool, too."

"Heh, yeah, I thought so too. Maybe if I get some more money I'll go get myself one," Ryoga said with a smile.

Ranma had to stand up to reach into her pocket and pull out the tin she always carried full of tablets, and Ryoga was surprised when she pulled the tin seemingly from thin air.

"Woah, did you master Mousse's hidden weapons technique or something?"

"...No, the dress has pockets. The hole's hidden in the seam here, on the side."

Ryoga felt really stupid at that and rubbed the back of his head again in embarrassment. "Sorry, guess I figured with a dress that fit you so... _snug_, there wouldn't be any pockets on it."

Ranma sighed, remembering her past endeavors with dresses and skirts. "They usually don't," she explained. "Here, help me put this on."

Her emergency tablet placed safely in its new home, she turned around and held up both ends of the chain on either side of her soft and slender neck.

Ryoga stood and swallowed, fighting his own nerves. '_Why am I shaking like this? It's just Ranma here_,' he thought, noticing the quiver of his hands as he took the thin gilded string. Carefully, he latched the clasp and laid it down on her neck. He had to pull Ranma's braid over the chain to set it down in its final resting place. "Ranma... your hair has gotten really long, hasn't it?"

Without turning around to face him, she said, "Yeah, I guess it's been a while since I cut it. I think it looks nicer this way. F-for my school disguise, I mean." She almost slipped and let her real opinion out, but she caught her slip up just in time to protect her fragile male ego. Guys aren't supposed to want to look nice, right?

Ryoga couldn't stop staring at her slender neck and the way the dark red played off her pale white skin. "It's beautiful..." he whispered, brushing his fingers gently up the side of her neck. Being this close to the sweetest tasting blood in the world was proving to be just a little too tempting for him.

Ranma flinched at the unexpected touch and she could feel her face get hot, but she didn't ask him to stop. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't get anything for you. I didn't think we were gonna do that sort of thing..." she admitted sadly.

It's true. Ranma had briefly thought about finding him something, but every time she thought about it, she'd remember her conversation with Akane and the gossip that bled through the school about her being together with Ryoga. She'd always decided it was best not to lead him on. Even if her body _DID_ want him in that moment two weeks ago...

But now, the guilt of her decision was weighing heavily on her mind. He went out of his way to find her something special, something that worked as both a girl and a guy, and would even help her deal with her problems. Sadly, she didn't have anything to show for it. '_Well, he did say his mom told him to get me something, so maybe I shouldn't feel so guilty about... wait, Shiori said I could just let him drink! It's perfect, he loves my blood! I just... need to be careful to control myself this time_,' she realized.

Nervously, she spoke up in a small voice. "Um, R-Ryoga? You can drink from me, i-if you want to, I mean... Since it's all I have to offer as a gift, and all..." '_Thank god he can't see my face right now!_'

Ryoga salivated at the offer and could feel his fangs aching with desire. "A-are you sure?"

Ranma carefully nodded and said, "Y-yeah, go for it. Before I change my mind."

Ryoga gulped and gently leaned in, whispering "thank you" into her ear before biting down on that perfectly smooth neck of hers.

Ranma gasped in the brief moment of pain before the pleasure took hold, even stronger than the last time. She shook, and felt a weakness in her knees. That warm, comforting feeling permeated her whole body and she had to struggle not to collapse from the sheer pleasure rippling through her every muscle. '_I have to stop him... I have to... I have to..._'

Weakly, she managed to reach up with her trembling hand and brush Ryoga's cheek.

Ryoga took that as a sign he should stop and he relucantly pulled back. Ranma turned to face him and saw his eyes shimmering a bright glowing red, and he saw hers doing the same. She could feel his heart pounding fast, shaking through her whole body with each rapid beat, and she could feel her own pounding in her throat just as hard. She looked to his neck, and back to his eyes, before closing hers and gently leaning in to bite him back.

A moment after her teeth sank into his neck, his returned to hers, and they shared in the ecstacy of lust that overcame them both.

Ryoga found his arms make their way to the small of her back, pulling her in close. She gave a little squeal of surprise at the gentle pull but in the heat of the moment, she couldn't fight it. No, she wanted it just as much as he did, if not more. His blood carried an earthy taste that reminded her of fond memories spent in the woods; a familiar taste that screamed 'Ryoga' to her. The inebriating ichor sated her bloodlust but made her thirst for something more, something physical, something... _him_.

Gently, she let up and feeling her pull away, he did the same. They stared deepy into each others eyes, faces flush with desire. Ranma looked to his lips to find stains of her blood upon them, and knew exactly how to fulfil that yearning desire.

Slowly and instinctively, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his. Their eyes closed and their hands began to wander, his to her hip and her natural waist, and hers up to cup his cheeks, finally ending up with her arms around his neck. Ryoga held her so firm against his body, he could feel the hard stubbs of her chest pressing into his, and she could feel a pressure from him that she tried her best to ignore in the heat of the moment.

Their kiss deepened and carefully Ryoga picked up the smaller girl and gently lay her down on the floor, never breaking the kiss, and they continued on in pure euphoria. Finally, Ryoga pulled back and saw the look on the girl's face. The gentle smile and full rosy cheeks that lit up her soft features in the moonlight made her the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. His heart pounded wildly and his eyes traveled down to the blood still slowly oozing from her neck. He leaned down to lick it, making Ranma twitch and giggle from the tickling sensation of his tongue. He couldn't help but smile as he bit in once more, feeling Ranma instantly relax in his arms and let out an involuntary moan of bliss before returning her lips to his neck for more of the sweet nectar she desired.

With tears in her eyes and her face flush with an odd mix of embarrassment, shock, and anger, Akane held her mouth shut as she watched the scene from the doorway. With a single tear running down her cheek, she quietly backed away to leave the two lovers to embrace under the moonlight.

* * *

The next morning, Nodoka awoke to the sound of cooking untensils scraping from the kitchen, aggrivating a wicked headache. She groaned and lifted a hand to rub her temples but was surprised to find she was holding onto something.

Opening one eye, she peered at the foreign sheet of paper crumpled in her hand and flattened it out on the table to examine it. What she saw shook her to her very core. Written in no uncertain terms was a way out of the contract that had plagued her family, and it was signed by all three of the Saotomes, as well as two witnesses.

Tears flowed down her smiling cheeks and she blurted out, "It _was_ real! It was really real!"

"What was, Mrs. Saotome?" Kasumi asked with her innocent curiosity as she came in to set a tea tray on the table.

"Oh, Kasumi, you'll never believe it! An angel visited me in my dreams and freed us from the seppuku pledge!" she cried, handing the note over for Kasumi to look at. "It's a Christmas miracle!"

Reading it over, Kasumi shot a hand to her mouth in shock. "Oh, my! Isn't this wonderful?"

"It's the greatest gift I could have ever gotten, Kasumi!" she cried, leaning over to embrace the younger girl in a hug of joy. "The angel gave me the gift of family!"

Chuckling a little in amusement at Nodoka's uncharactaristic happiness, Kasumi asked, "So what did this angel look like?"

"Oh, she was beautiful! She was tall, and had blonde hair, and was wearing the most beautiful kimono!" Nodoka sighed with awe. "I think she said her name was Shiori..."

* * *

The angel in question had spent the night with her husband in the empty dojo long after the party had ended, using a borrowed futon and a warm blanket Kasumi was kind enough to provide. After Nabiki tracked down a drunk panda and they took care of business, she went to try and find her son to head home. When she couldn't find him anywhere, she gave up and returned to the party as the last of the guests had left. It was lightly snowing out and they all wanted to get home before it could get worse.

Shiori didn't want to leave without him and figured her son had run off to hang out with his friends, but what she found as she wandered past the upstairs guest room the next morning was better than what she could have possibly imagined.

She had to stifle a gasp as she found Ryoga and Ranma cuddled up for warmth and laying on the tatami floor. He was spooning her, with a hand between her thighs and they both shared a blissful smile in their sleep.

Shiori nearly cried from joy when she noticed the dried bite wounds on both of their necks. '_Did they? Did they finally admit their feelings for each other?!_' she thought. '_It's such a shame to wake them, but..._'

Shiori gently knocked on the open door, alerting Ryoga with a start. Sleepily, he looked around until he found his grinning mother standing in the doorway.

"Hmm? Mom?" he moaned, causing Ranma to fidget.

"Mmm, five more minutes, Pops..." she muttered.

Carefully, she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings, meeting Ryoga's sleepy eyes after a moment. Slowly, their eyes widened with realization and in an instant, they both shot to opposite ends of the room flush in the face and not daring to look at one another.

"IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!" they both shouted in unison.

Shiori couldn't help but laugh at the adorable embarrassment of the two teens.

* * *

The following week was one of the best of Ranma's entire life, if not _the_ best. The only downside was that she couldn't change back for three days this time. Ranma assumed it was because Ryoga had drank so much this time, or maybe it was because she drank from him at the same moment, but it wasn't any bother. With how serene and zen she'd been over those three days, she didn't have a care in the world.

The seppuku pledge, her greatest enemy, had been defeated. She and her father had no reason to fear her mother anymore, and the relief that washed over the whole Tendo household was nearly tangible. It was finally over, and they'd be able to be a real family again, and what better way to kick that off than by going together to the local jinja shrine on new year's day?

As they waited in the long line going down the street, Ranma was surprised to learn how warm a winter kimono could be. A kimono was initially Kasumi's suggestion, since they'd be out all day and couldn't risk Ranma snapping in such a place, but Nodoka didn't seem to mind at all. If anything, she was glad to be able to go to the shrine with 'Ranko', since last year she'd gone with Ranma for the first time since he was two years old. Plus, she had to admit, Ranma looked rather adorable dressed up that way.

Eventually, with such a long line, boredom set in and Ranma tried to make small talk with Akane, but she was still quietly brooding to herself. Over the last week, or at least, the last four days since Ranma had come down from the intoxicating high Ryoga's bite gave her, Akane had been avoiding her. Every time she tried to initiate a conversation or even make small talk at the dining table, Akane had just given her short one-word answers or outright ignored her. She never raised her voice or hit her though, so Ranma knew that this wasn't anger, but a sign of depression. She could only assume that with the 'romantic' holiday passing without her kiss, Akane was finally reeling from their mutual breakup.

Ranma hated seeing Akane lost in her own mind like this. She knew from experience how bad that could be. It especially hurt knowing it was her fault.

"Hey, Akane, talk to me already. Are you avoiding me? ...Was it something I did?" she quietly approached. Was her gift not good enough? Was it the lack of a Christmas kiss? Or did she see what she and Ryoga were... '_No, there's no way she knows about that. We were alone_,' Ranma hoped against hope. "Please, just talk to me! I'm gettin' really worried here."

Akane finally met Ranma's eyes for the first time in a week. "It's... nothing, Ranma. I'll be fine," she lied. "I just have a lot on my mind is all." '_Like how the rumors at school about you two were true, and how that must of been you he was dancing with at the ball, and how you completely betrayed my heart and the promise to unite the schools by choosing him over me!_' she thought, but knew better than to cause a scene. It wasn't that she wasn't angry or hurt by it all, but rather, that she was so emotionally drained by the scene she walked in on and their breakup only days before that she didn't have the energy to fight. She had conceded that she didn't love Ranma, true, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt to realize how he had slipped away from her.

But she wasn't going to let it ruin the new year! This was a chance to start fresh and begin anew. She'd make a wish to live for herself and find her own happiness, and she was going to work hard this year to make it come true.

"You sure you're alright, Akane?" Ranma probed the silent girl who was running emotions all over over face. "Seriously, you can tell me anything. We're still friends, right?"

Akane sniffed at that and finally met Ranma's lavender eyes. "Yeah. Friends. Don't worry about it, Ranma. I'll be fine."

"You sure?" she asked with a worried frown.

Akane nodded and forced a smile she couldn't fully put her heart behind. "Positive."

When they finally got up the long staircase to the shrine proper, it opened up into a large area with several buildings and tons of people milling about. Some were making their offerings and others were buying good luck charms.

And over the crowds, Nodoka noticed a tall familiar looking foreigner standing nearly a head over the rest of the women in the crowd. She couldn't help the smile that bloomed across her face. "That's her!" she told her family as she pointed. "That's the angel who came to me in my dream!"

Ranma looked over to see Shiori and couldn't help but laugh. "Mom, she's no angel, that's Ryoga's mom, Shiori. You were just really toasted that night!"

Even Akane couldn't help but join in with everyone's laughter at Nodoka's embarrassment.

"At the very least, I should go and thank her," she said, walking off to greet the tall blonde.

"If she's here, then I guess that means..." Ranma began but cut short, meeting Ryoga's eyes from across the sea of people.

Time seemed to freeze and the world went silent as their wide eyes made a connection. Ranma could feel her whole body flush.

Akane was hurt seeing such a reaction from her former fiancee, but at the same time, she had to admit it was nice knowing Ranma could feel that way at all. With all of the girls chasing him over the years and their intimate discussion earlier, she was worried that Ranma wasn't capable of loving at all.

But seeing the way her ginger friend reacted to just the sight of Ryoga, it was obvious that he, er, _she_ had feelings for him, even if she'd probably never admit it. '_It's just easier to think of Ranma as a girl when it comes to this_,' she told herself. Akane wasn't ready to tackle the idea of two guys being together. "Well, go on, say hi already," she said with a nudge.

The gentle push knocked Ranma out of her stupor and she stumbled on her wooden geta. Just as she managed to balance herself, she looked up to find Ryoga standing right next to her, which caused her blush to intensify at the surprise.

"I-I saw you fall, are you alright?" he blurted out in his own awkward embarrassment.

Ranma looked away from him. "Yeah, I'm fine, pig boy. What, _ah_, what's up?"

"Nothin' much," he shrugged, looking away. "Just here for new years. What about you?" he asked.

"Same, new years. Tradition, and all."

"Right. Tradition."

Akane rolled her eyes. This was getting hard to watch. It was almost worse than that stupid koi rod incident! "I'm gonna go make my offering and buy an ema, I'll see you guys later," she said, walking off towards the building with the giant rope dangling in front.

Left all alone, neither of them knew what to say. They hadn't seen each other at all since Christmas morning. They couldn't bare to acknowledge what had happened. Was that real? Did they really drink from each other and... _make out_? It was so beyond reality that they didn't even know where to begin to approach it. And in typical Ranma fashion, she thought it best to pretend embarrassing things never happened.

Ryoga looked the quiet girl over and took in her kimono. It was white with koi of various colors swimming around her torso and sleeves, and looking to the layers at her neck, he could see that each one matched a color of the fish. "I, um, I like your kimono. Looks nice," he said, trying to break the icy tension.

Ranma scowled. "Y-you don't have to compliment my looks, I'm not your girlfriend or anything!" she said with a blush. She couldn't help but glance at his suit and notice the same thing. "...You look nice too."

"Heh, thanks," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "I see you're still wearing the dragon."

Ranma glanced down, trying to see it, but knowing full well she couldn't from her point of view. "Well, like ya said, it's practical, y'know? Always good to keep a spare tablet, especially for kimonos."

"Huh? Why's that?" he asked.

"No real pockets," she said, holding up her sleeve to show him a thin pocket sewn into the cuff that wasn't big enough to hold the whole tin of tablets. Then she showed him a little purple coin purse with a golden drawstring. "That's why I gotta carry this."

"Ah, that kinda sucks," he admitted. Another awkward silence broke out between the two as the conversation died, so Ryoga finally offered, "After this, my parents and I were gonna go get something to eat. Your family and the Tendos are welcome to join us if you want."

Food? Now that got Ranma's attention. "Really? That'd be great! I bet it's gonna be packed though so we'd better hurry," she excitedly said.

Ryoga couldn't help but crack a smile at her excitement. Leave it to food to make Ranma forget her problems. "Yeah, you're right. Let's go offer a prayer."

"Alright," Ranma said, and together, they went off to take care of their annual ritual.

When the prayers were over, they made their way to the gift shop and bought ema of their own; little wooden plaques to write a wish on in the hopes that the shrine's kami would be able to grant them.

Ranma thought carefully about what she was going to wish for and delicately began writing her message in ink. Her caligraphy wasn't the best, but she wanted to make sure whatever kami was here would be able to make it out.

"To find peace and happiness," Ryoga read aloud, watching her tie her plaque up to the rest. "Kinda basic, don't you think?"

"I don't know, I think it covers everything easy enough," she said with a smile, not taking her eyes off the plaque. "I want to find peace with this whole 'Kaori' thing, and with my curse and all, and with how bleak things have been lately, I sure would like to find happiness this year."

"Well with the contract dealt with, you're on the right track," Ryoga said, hanging his own.

"Hmm? What's yours say, Ryoga? I can't read it from here," Ranma complained. Ryoga intentionally tied his as high as he could and with how short Ranma was compared to him, she couldn't make out all the letters.

"Oh, heh, basically the same thing," he bluffed. He didn't want Ranma to know that he wished for her happiness as well.

She might get the wrong idea.

* * *

**A/N:** Holy crap that one was long! 26,557 words this time. I need a break. I've been working on this one since the day after the last one was posted, and with the holiday this week life got super busy and work became exhausting and then I got sick and I didn't touch this for like four days because of all of that... but it's finally over. The beast is done.

There's so much I wanted to say about this one that I couldn't remember by the time I finished it. I guess I'll leave it with poor Akane. I like her as a character, I do. She's the relateable one. The 'Joan Everywoman' surrounded by chaos. Problem is, this story's about Ranma and told from her perspective, and Akane's just kinda there for the ride. Things have definitely matured since their failed wedding and with high school nearly over, it was time she took their relationship seriously, but you can't force love no matter how hard you try. Forcing yourself into a marriage without love will only make you both miserable in the long term. Ranma realized that after the wedding fell through but rolled with the punches in hopes of getting to what was real, but it never happened.

Finally, with how things turned out, they had to do the grown up thing and call it off. I don't know if I'll write the actual moment they tell the families what's up, but it will be addressed in the last chapter. It has to be for it to make sense.

Nodoka's another character I love. The fanon has turned her into such a mean person but in the source comics, she's just incredibly lonely and doing what she thinks she has to. She loves her son more than anything and I think it's particularly cruel how Genma keeps hiding from her, and forcing Ranma to hide as well. Of course, the series is a sitcom, so it plays into the hijinks of near-misses and misconceptions. But she's such a sweet woman otherwise and wants nothing more than her family to be whole. I had to give that to her.

The contract... I think I could have done better if I didn't exclusively work on this project in the middle of the night after long days at work lol. For the sake of the story here though, it works. I was originally going to take care of in the last chapter, but hey, it's Christmas! ...and I just realized I didn't have a single Die Hard reference in here. Damnit.

I also hope you guys like what I did with Ryoga's mother, who I'm pretty sure was never actually named in the original comics. I had a lot of fun with her, and she kind of became her own character as I went. A real angel.

Anyway, we're nearing the end. There are three more planned chapters: the next two being a big climax, and the last being more of a 'tying up loose ends' epilogue. This fluffy chapter here is the calm before the storm, so please, stick around for the finale. It might take me a while to get it done though. At the moment, I'm having a bit of a writer's block, but these things tend to work themselves out as I go.

I hope you are all enjoying this and continue to enjoy it as we wrap things up. I appreciate all the favs and reviews. Thank you all very much!

**Posted 12/2/2019**


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